With the WTA Season now complete, nominees have been announced for the WTA Awards and the Newcomer of the Year is one of the categories to have its players confirmed.
Mirra Andreeva leads the way and will be the favorite to pickup the award for 2023. The 16-year-old prodigy reached the fourth round of Madrid out of nowhere and rocketed up 359 spots in total this season. She then reached the third round of Roland Garros and the fourth round of Wimbledon in her debuts at each.
She did not lose her opening match at any tournament in 2023 and completed four top 20 wins in total seeing her stop infinitely rise during this time.
Shnaider, Stearns, Noskova and Avanesyan also nominated
Also nominated includes
Diana Shnaider who reached the top 100 this season amid studying at NC State University, she turned pro in May and reached semi-finals in Hamburg and Nanchang as well as the final in Ningbo. The Russian is now into the top 60 in the world.
Peyton Stearns who also came through the college system is also up for the award and made a huge impact herself. She is up to World No.53 this season from World No.209. She reached a first WTA Final in Bogota and also the fourth round on debut at her home Grand Slam of the US Open.
Elina Avanesyan on the other hand made an impact when it came to being a lucky loser. She lost in qualifying at Roland Garros, but came back to reach the fourth round. In Berlin, she did similar but this time reaching the Quarter-Finals. Also runs in Budapest and Lausanne established the 21-year-old's talents and also saw her nominated.
The same can be said for
Linda Noskova with the 19-year-old on the other end of the scale starting 2023 superbly. The Czech ace upset Daria Kasatkina, Victoria Azarenka and Ons Jabeur in succession to reach the final in Adelaide. She finished the year inside the top 50 reaching the final in Prague also.