#7. Elina Svitolina
The 22-year old Ukrainian had her breakthrough year in 2014 where she reached the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters before reaching the semi-finals of the Wuhan Open. Last year, she made her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the French Open and reached the Top 20 of the WTA rankings for the first time in her career.Svitolina had a good start to her year, reaching the final of the Hopman Cup along with Alexander Dolgopolov where they were beaten by the Australian pair of Nick Kyrgios and Jarmila Wolfe. However, this was followed by a first round exit at the Sydney International and a shocking second round defeat to qualifier Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open. Following the Australian Open, Svitolina dropped out of the Top 20.She rebounded well by reaching the semi-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships. After a disappointing first round exit at the Qatar Open, Svitolina won her 4th WTA title at the Malaysian Open which lifted her to a career-high ranking of 14. She ended her hard-court season with third and fourth round exits at Indian Wells and Miami.Svitolina was having a miserable clay-court season where she exited the Madrid and Rome Masters in the second and first rounds respectively. However, she ended her clay-court season on a decent note by reaching the fourth round of the French Open where she was beaten by eventual runner-up Serena Williams.A poor grass-court season followed the French Open as Svitolina was ousted in the opening round of the Aegon Classic before being knocked out of the Wimbledon in the second round. Svitolina came into the Rio Olympics at the back of a third round exit at the Rogers Cup. At Rio, she scripted a major upset by defeating defending champion and top seed Serena Williams in the third round to reach the quarter-finals where she was trounced by eventual bronze medalist Petra Kvitova.After a disappointing second round defeat to qualifier Daria Gavrilova at the Cincinnati Masters, Svitolina bounced back at the Connecticut Open by reaching the final where she lost to Aga Radwanska. At the US Open, Svitolina reached the third round where she was beaten by Petra Kvitova. Svitolina had a successful Asian swing where she reached the semi-finals of both the Pan Pacific Open and the China Open. This brought her back to the Top 15 and assured her place in the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai for the second year running
. After reaching the quarter-finals of the Kremlin Cup, Svitolina came to the WTA Elite Trophy in good form. She bettered her semi-final performance of last year by reaching the final this year where she was up against Kvitova. Like the Rio Olympics and US Open, Svitolina lost in straight sets yet again. However, she ended the season ranked 14th which will be her highest year-end ranking.The Ukrainian had a good run of form towards the end of the year and provided she maintains her consistency, she could be a serious contender to win a Grand Slam and with age on her side as well, she could well be tomorrow’s World No.1.
