#3. Lucie Safarova
The Czech had a memorable 2015 as she reacher her first ever Grand Slam final at the French Open and was in the Top 5 of the WTA rankings for some time which also helped her qualify for the WTA Finals that year. However, towards the latter part of 2015, Safarova had to struggle with a bacterial infection which kept her out for a few weeks and kept her out of the entirety of the Australian Open series at the start of 2016 which dropped her out of the Top 10.She returned to tennis at the Qatar Open but was ousted in the opening round by Turk Cagla Buyukakcay. She ended her hard-court season by second round exits at Indian Wells and Miami; having received a bye to the second round in both tournaments.
Safarova finally won her first match of the year at the Prague Open which she eventually went on to win. After pulling out of the Madrid Open due to gastrointestinal illness, Safarova lost in the third round of the French Open to eventual semi-finalist Sam Stosur, thus failing to defend her runner-up points from last year, which dropped her down to 26th in the WTA rankings.At the grass-court season, Safarova exited in the first and second rounds of the Aegon Classic and the Eastbourne International respectively before reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon, equaling her best Grand Slam performance since last year’s Wimbledon. A string of poor performances were to follow after the Wimbledon as the second round was the best she could reach in the tournaments that followed and as a result, she will finish 2016 as number 63rd.
