2012 Year End Review: The women ranked Nos. 31-40

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By Matthew Cronin

Thus continues our review of the top 50 singles players on the ATP and WTA Tours. We resume with the women ranked Nos. 31 -40.

31. Urszula Radwanska

Aga’s little sister had by far her best season, finally getting her temper and previous wild game under control. She began the year ranked No. 102, and qualified for four tournaments before winning Nottingham on grass and then reaching the final of S-Hertogenbosch. She was quite consistent after that and given that she’s an excellent ball striker when she’s in position, the top 20 is not out of the question for her in 2013.

32. Daniela Hantuchova

In some ways I’m surprised that the Slovak even finished this high as it hard to recall her doing much after she won Pattaya City in February. She actually didn’t, suffering a whopping 10 first round losses. Hantuchova is a smart player, but injuries are beginning to take their toll on her and given that speed has never been her forte anyway, it’s not going to be easy for her when she turns 30 in April to remain a relevant singles player.

33. Christina McHale

It was breakout season for the young American, who played extremely well until she caught a virus at the Olympics and then she had trouble physically reviving. She’s not the physically strongest player out there, but she’s terrific mover with under rated groundstrokes and a heck of a competitor. But does she have the weapons to crack the top 20 and be a serious force at the majors? Next season will go a long way in telling that tale.

34. Carla Suarez Navarro

The Spaniard has struggled with leg injuries, so it was good to see her grit her teeth and push herself back into the top 35 again. But while she’s a very good clay court player and can make hay on slow hard courts, Suarez has trouble imposing herself on fast surfaces and must find a way to improve her all around game if she is to be a really feared.

35. Francesca Schiavone

After a fine 2009-2011 stretch, the wheel really came off of the veteran Italian in 2012, as she lacked spark and appeared to be questioning just why she was still on court. She did next to nothing after winning Strasbourg the week prior to Roland Garros and while she is one of the most entertaining players to watch when she’s on, her high flying attack has pretty much been grounded. It’s up to Schiavone to decide whether she wants to rekindle her fire and make one last push in 2013.

36. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

The young Russian had a very disappointing year, appears to be burned out and unsure what the foundation of her game should be. She’s a smart person, but  she doesn’t always play that way. She fell out of shape and suffered a crisis of confidence, beginning the year ranked No. 16 and not even reaching a semifinal until she got to the final round of Washington. She did have a good Cincy when she upset Julia Georges and Caroline Wozniacki, but then she disappeared again. She just returned to the Patrick Mouratoglou academy for coaching. Mouratoglou has a lot of work cut out for him.

37. Sabine Lisicki

What a bizarre year for the German, who has one of the tour’s most dominant first serves and pretty good pop off the ground too, but who can’t seem to develop any consistency. She had a fine Wimbledon where she knocked out Maria Sharapova and played one of the year’s most thrilling matches in a three-set loss to Angie Kerber, but after Sharapova got revenge on her at the Olympics, she fell off the face of the WTA, only winning one match the rest of the year. I seriously question her mental toughness.

38. Sloane Stephens

The American is still only 19 and has more than a fair amount of weapons, so the assumption here is that with maturity, she is not going to experience so many up and downs. She’s back with USTA Player Development, which should give her more stability and direction and hopefully a year of good health, because once again she was unable to compete in the fall because she was hurt. She put up some fine wins in 2012 and also took some tough losses to notable players. Next year, if the speedster turns a few results around, she could find herself sitting in the year-end top 20.

39. Mona Barthel

Germany has a phalanx of good women’s players and for a while earlier this season, it looked like the big-hitting Bartel could be the best of them, but she does not have Kerber’s solid frame of mind and she teeters mentally in big matches. Her game is there, but self-belief eludes her.

40. Peng Shuai

At this point it looks like Peng has hit her ceiling. She can bash it from inside the baseline and is capable of getting on hot streaks, but she’s constantly getting injured and then tries to play through it, mostly to no avail. The 26 year old has a great spirit, but not longer a big upside.