WTA Tour 2020: The two contenders who can take over no. 1 ranking from Barty in January
The WTA season resumes in January with the field set for first few tournaments Down Under. The season will commence with players looking to get in some early march practice leading up to the Australian Open.
In recent years, even the top players have played almost all the warm-up tournaments for Grand Slams and the phenomenon only heightens the action both on court and on the ranking leaderboards.
The year's first Grand Slam has thrown a few surprises in the past couple of years. Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka dislodged the reigning No.1s to taken over the top ranking following title runs in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and there is no reason why that cannot happen in 2020 as well.
With that in mind, here is a look at the two probables to take over the top spot currently held by Ashleigh Barty.
#1. Karolina Pliskova
Karolina Pliskova has a few things going for her heading into the 2020 season: She is the first in the race to upstage Barty in the rankings, she has a new coach in Daniel Vallverdú and has had a few weeks under him which could definitely add a few new elements to her game.
The 27 year old from Czech Republic has been the world No.1 and knows what it takes to get there, so the question of extra pressure should not bother her too much. The one thing that hasn't yet achieved through is the title run at a Grand Slam. And that is exactly what she will had to do to get her hands back on the No.1 ranking.
Pliskova will enter the 2020 season with a title defence in Brisbane and the tournament in Sydney. If she manages to get some extra points at the latter tournament she will be in prime position to compete for the top spot against Barty, who will herself be defending points from the Sydney final and Australian Open quarterfinal from last year.
This is as good a shot for Pliskova to assert her status as a true contender for both the no. 1 spot and Grand Slam titles.
#2. Simona Halep
Simona Halep has had to fight hard for everything in her career; she had to fight for her first Grand Slam title, the No.1 ranking and to sustain herself at the top. Therefore, it is only fair that her path of getting back to the top spot looks a little easier than expected.
Halep had a dismal start in the 2019 season. A first-round loss in Sydney and a fourth-round exit in the Australian Open left an underwhelming impression. However, the silver lining in all of it is that she does not have any points to defend in January 2020 and is playing to win, win back some lost ground and big ranking points.
Halso is only about 2400 points behind Barty at this point. A title or even a finals run at the Australian Open added with a few good results in the warm-up tournaments will have her in the reckoning for the top spot again.
Considering the fact that Barty will be under some pressure playing in front of her home crowd as the world No.1 all January, a few slip-ups can be expected. And that might just open the door for the ones keeping an eye out for that highly coveted no. 1 ranking.
Honourable mentions
And while the math does not quite add up for Petra Kvitova and Bianca Andreescu, the two will also be vying to the reach the summit at some point.
Andreescu has withdrawn from the tournament in Auckland, where she was finalist in 2019. Add the uncertain nature of her comeback after the knee injury and the plans for the No.1 ranking will go on the back-burner for now.
Kvitova, on the other hand, simply has too many points to defend early in 2020. She has become known for her exceptional starts to the WTA season in the past couple of years. With her having to defend her title win in Sydney and the finals run in Australian Open (where she came agonisingly close to the top spot), the arithmetic might prove too big an obstacle to overcome for Kvitova just yet.