Caroline Garcia
There was the quarterfinal in singles at the French Open. And there was the fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon. Other than those two results—impressive as they might be—most of 2017 was rather lackluster for Caroline Garcia: By September, it had been more than a year since the Frenchwoman played in a singles final. She put an end to that drought in a major way in Wuhan, China, winning the biggest title of her career, and followed that up with a victory in Beijing. Those triumphs lifted her into the Top 10 and a spot in the WTA Finals field, where she reached the semifinals.
Karen Khachanov
Announcing himself as a player to watch with his first title as a 20-year-old in 2016, Karen Khachanov made a steady ascent up the rankings over the next two years. In early 2018, the Russian won his second career title, but whether it was the weight of expectations or a matter of still adjusting to playing main-draw ATP events on a consistent basis, he struggled afterward for months. Arriving in Moscow in October with little momentum on his side, Khachanov won the title with the loss of only one set. His last tournament of the year was even more impressive when he beat four Top-10 players in a row to claim the crown at the Paris Masters.
Naomi Osaka
It might seem unfathomable that a player who started the year off winning a major singles title might need some big victories at the end, but that’s the situation Naomi Osaka found herself in in 2019. Following up her 2018 US Open triumph with a win in Melbourne a few months later, Osaka took over the No. 1 ranking, but was far from dominant for the bulk of 2019 season, going without another title through the US Open. After a fourth-round loss in New York, though, she caught fire, ending her slump with back-to-back titles in Osaka, Japan, and Beijing. In the latter final, she defeated Ashleigh Barty, the reigning No. 1.