WTA: Which youngster will make the big breakthrough in 2018?

French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko was probably the biggest surprise of the past season. What hope for the future can take on the role of the Latvian woman in 2018?

There is hardly any other player who has developed as rapidly as Yelena Ostapenko in 2017. The WTA Most Improved Player of the Year Award winner from Riga improved from 44th to seventh place in the world ranking. The 20-year-old’s athleticism provided many high-gloss moments, but her behaviour on and off the pitch still reveals enormous growth potential.

A similar type of player as Ostapenko is Darya Kastkina. The world rankings-24. from Russia had won the final of Charleston in an impressive manner against the later sand court queen. For tennis legend Martina Navratilova, Kasatkina has the facilities to make a major breakthrough this coming season:

“She is athletic, competitive, lively and has a good all-round game – so it’s all about following her instincts,”Navratilova told the WTA website.

US idol Chris Evert prefers Japan’s “Next Big Thing” Naomi Osaka instead. The 20-year-old Asian was swept away at the US Open by defending champion Angelique Kerber – the former world number one in the rankings only played four games at the opening match in Flushing Meadows.

When Naomi plays a bit more mature and selects her strokes better,”says Evert,”there are no limits to what she can do,”she had a few close matches against top ten players, her power is impressive,” the same might apply to Ana Konjuh, Anett Kontaktveit or Carina Witthöft, who are expected to do the same in 2018.