Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa were the most efficient players in term of translating their on-court dominance to the ratio of wins to losses. That could not end up differently, as both Sabalenka and Badosa were unbeatable in January. The fates of both players were quite opposite though. Badosa did not have a chance to continue her run of 4 wins started in WTA 500 tournament in Adelaide, pulling out of the Australian Open due to an injury. Sabalenka took part in two tournaments and ended up with 11 wins and two titles, containing this most important one - becoming Grand Slam champion on last Saturday.
January was a bittersweet month for Americans. Cori Gauff, Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula had a successful month on paper. Keys achieved the best score in match efficiency ratio apart from Sabalenka and Badosa, winning 7 out of 8 matches with not the highest dominance ratio - 1.47. Keys had a great start of the season, being unbeatable in United Cup, being a key player for the US team who grabbed the final victory. The one and only lose came up in an unfortunate moment though, as Keys lost in 3rd round of Australian Open, losing many ranking points and places (24th right now) after last year's semifinal run. Pegula won 8 out of 10 matches, showing a dominant performance with a dominance ratio 1.8 and breakpoints prevail ratio (division of breaks gained and lost) 2.5. Her great form was seen not just in the stats, as Pegula was considered as a serious title contender, for the first time in career. She was the next victim of Azarenka though, ending up short to the Belarusian in a quarterfinal, adding another loss to infamous series of Grand Slam QF appearances, 0-5 for now. Cori Gauff is another American, who played really well but ended up with a disappointment. Gauff started her season by winning WTA 250 tournament in Auckland without losing any single set on the road. Gauff was also considered as one of the favorites to fight for AO title, but faced an upset in Round of 16, losing in straight sets to Jelena Ostapenko despite being a big favorite of this match. Huge numbers were achieved by Gauff - dominance ratio 1.92, breakpoints prevail ratio 3.09, dominance efficiency ratio 1.61 and match efficiency ratio 4.17 are one of the top numbers in all stats, but the final outcome is surely a disappointment for young American. Nevertheless, despite not achieving the goals, this kind of display is a hope for big season for the Americans, as they proved to be the forces to reckon by every other top player.
Leylah Fernandez, finalist of US Open 2021, tops the dominance ratio column with a huge result 2.75. This had not materialized in any notable tournament result though, as Fernandez gained scored this high value by a storming start in WTA 250 Auckland, losing just 3 games (!) in her first two matches, being surprisingly upset in the QF by Ysaline Bonaventure in straight sets. Australian Open was also started well by Fernandez, who eliminated Alize Cornet in first round, but came up short against Caroline Garcia in second round despite a tight battle with the French. Her breakpoints prevail ratio is also high, with a value 2.28, but this dominance had weak conversion into winning games (0.83 dominance efficiency ratio) and even worse in case of winning matches - 3 wins, 2 loses and just 0.55 value in match efficiency ratio.
Clara Burel went a bit of a reverse path. 21 years-old French player had quite a good month, going a little bit under radar. Burel passed the three-level AO qualyfing stage and advanced to the 2nd round of Grand Slam, losing against Barbora Krejcikova. Burel entered the WTA 250 in Lyon as well, where she surpassed Ana Bogdan in first round. 6 wins comparing to just 1 lose in a match-up, where the French player was rated as an underdog. Great result achieved despite quite a low dominance ratio (1.18). It's surely a good and efficient start of the season.
Alison Van Uytvanck and Bernarda Pera are the players who achieved much more that it was displayed in their on-court performance, as both players had sharply low dominance ratio values (Van Uytvank 0.55, Pera 0.68). That means, they were facing much more breakpoints on their serves, than the amount of danger produced by them in the opponents games. Despite that, the Belgian managed to win 3 out of her 5 matches and Pera won 4 matches compare to 3 loses. Not bad, considering the on-court trouble which they faced in January.
