How does being a newcomer on the WTA tour compare today vs a decade ago?

(Getty/Mustafa Yalcin)

The path for a newcomer on the WTA tour today looks very different from a decade ago. The trajectory of a tennis player to the pro tour has changed exponentially, not to mention the tour and everything that comes along with it. So just how different was the circuit for a WTA newcomer 10 years ago? 

Back then, the typical trajectory for a pro WTA player included progressing through the junior ITF level, then onto the professional ITF circuit, and working their way up to the WTA 250+ level. It was very common for players to start making their mark on the professional scene at a young age. 

In 2015, at 21 years of age, Aussie Daria Saville won the WTA Newcomer of the Year award after climbing almost 200 ranking spots to No.35 in the rankings. Yet, Serena Williams at 34 won her fourth straight WTA Player of the Year award after ending the year with the coveted No.1 ranking and three of the four Grand Slams that year. This showcased both very young players breaking through and experienced veterans at the helm of the tour. 

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However, the tour only truly allowed for the top 100 players to make a somewhat decent living. The pathways were limited, with the only true option to the tour being grinding out through the ITF tours until a big break was made into the higher WTA-level events. 

The vast majority of newcomers broke through right after juniors at a very young age. The likes of Belinda Bencic, Donna Vekic, and Katerina Siniakova were all 18 in 2015, breaking into the top 100 on the tour, while Naomi Osaka was a 17-year-old also starting in the top 300.

Nowadays, there are a few more options for breaking into the WTA. For example, taking the collegiate route has become a very popular option, allowing players to mature and build their games in the US while pursuing an education and allowing for a few more years before making the transition to professional tennis. 

At the end of last year, a then-23-year-old Lulu Sun was selected as the 2024 WTA Newcomer of the Year after improving her ranking to No.40 and reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals. She played one year of college tennis at the University of Texas, helping the Longhorns with an NCAA National title in 2021, before graduating in 2022 and turning pro. 

Danielle Collins, who has experienced an extremely successful professional career later in her playing days, reached the No.7 ranking after playing collegiate tennis. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016, where she won two NCAA singles titles. In an interview with the WTA, she stated: "Going to college was crucial for me and my development, and I learned so much both on and off the court and in the classroom."

The incidence of older women making their breakthrough has also increased significantly compared to a decade ago. A notable example is Jasmine Paolini, who broke through into the upper echelons of the tour last year at 28, making two Slam finals, when she had previously struggled to even qualify for tournaments of that magnitude. 

Another important pathway to include involves the UTR Pro tennis tour, allowing players to have multiple high-quality matches, guaranteed prize money, and entry eligibility based on rating instead of ranking, and even at times, hospitality is included free of charge. Opportunities such as these are allowing players to develop, in or out of college, of all different demographics. 

Furthermore, the WTA has developed new tournament tiers, expanded its calendar, increased prize money, and closed disparities between the ATP tour. This means more breadth in tournament tiers, especially for lower tiers, to allow for better opportunities to develop and earn across all levels of the WTA tour. 

However, with numerous developments across technology in all aspects of tennis, many argue that it is harder to break through onto the tour now. With an increased parity between players, especially in the top 100, being a newcomer, even with all the different additions, is even tougher than 10 years ago. 

Currently at the top of the game, we see world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, who, at 27, has four major titles and has dominated the past few years on tour, along with No.2 Iga Świątek, who holds six Slams at 24. The rest of the top 10 are aged between 21-31 years of age. 

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Another interesting factor that is coming into play is the fight for equal pay and opportunity in women's tennis. It has long been known that women's tennis has been a pioneer for gender equality in sports. However, compared to a decade ago, we are only now experiencing truer parity across media coverage, pay, and more chances for female athletes. The 2025 US Open women's final averaged 2.4 million viewers on ESPN in just the United States, up about 50 per cent from the 2023 final. 

The WTA released a new tour calendar roll-out in 2023, aiming for planning towards a more equitable and sustainable future for women's tennis. 

"One of the main pillars of the strategy includes creating a pathway toward equal prize money, a goal envisioned 50 years ago when Billie Jean King founded the WTA. This increase will happen over time, to ensure the changes are sustainable for players and tournaments in the long term, with WTA 1000 and 500 combined events attaining equal prize money by 2027 and single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2033," said a WTA spokesperson.

These investments are allowing our newcomers to experience less inequality and discrimination at the hands of the tour. This also means that newcomers can enter on more equal footing to the men, with increased measures in place to protect their development and help them focus on tennis. 

A lot of the increased exposure and coverage of the WTA tour is also attributed to the rise of social media and how players are connecting to fans, sponsors, and the wider public.

For example, Sabalenka boasts 3.8 million followers on Instagram. This connects her to all of her fans who get exclusive insight into her life on and off the court. But sponsorships and brand deals mean she also earns an extra set of sponsored revenue from social media. These opportunities are also helping lower-ranked players earn extra media exposure and revenue, which can help support their tennis as content producers across various media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. 

However, this comes with an additional problem compared to what newcomers faced a decade ago. Players now are expected to not only be media trained, but in the public eye 24/7. With the rise of betting on tennis, female players have been at an increased risk of stalking and social media abuse. The harrowing example of Emma Raducanu's encounter with a stalker at the Dubai Championships highlights this issue.  

Ultimately, the game has progressed in unprecedented ways, and the tour does look a whole lot different from what it did a decade ago. But women's tennis is steadily rising, and being a newcomer comes with different advantages and difficulties with every passing year.

Who do you think we will see break through in the coming season, and how will they deal with what being a newcomer on the WTA tour means today? 

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