#2. Agnieszka Radwanska
Radwanska ended 2015 on a high by winning the WTA Finals and continued her brilliant form in 2016 by winning the Shenzhen Open which was followed by a semi-final appearance at the Australian Open. This was followed by semi-final appearances at the Qatar Open and at the Indian Wells Masters which helped her re-attain the No.2 ranking. However, this was followed by a string of patchy performances as she lost to Timea Bacsinszky in the fourth round of the Miami Masters and was stunned by Laura Siegemund in the semi-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Radwanska exited the French Open in the fourth round after losing to Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.Radwanska’s patchy performances continued in the grass-court season as she was knocked out in the first round of the Birmingham Classic and was beaten by Dominika Cibulkova in the quarter-finals of the Eastbourne International as well as in the fourth round of the Wimbledon. A third round shock defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round of the Rogers Cup was followed by a hectic 55-hour travel from Montreal to Rio which did not give her enough time to prepare for the Olympics, both physically and mentally and as a result she was knocked out in the first round by Zheng Saisai. She rebounded well by reaching the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters and later won the Connecticut Open, beating Elina Svitolina in the final. This was followed by a surprise fourth round exit at the US Open at the hands of Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh. Radwanska bounced back during the Asian leg by reaching the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open which was followed by a quarter-final appearance at the Wuhan Open where she lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets. Radwanska then won the China Open to mark her third WTA title of the year and the 20th of her career. During the China Open, Radwanska confirmed her place in the WTA Finals and is one of the heavy favorites to bag the title. She has been drawn in the White Group alongside US Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova, an inconsistent Garbine Muguruza and two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and given her current form, there’s a very good chance she might retain her title.
