Sportskeeda Tennis Awards 2014: Comeback Player of the Year - Female

There have been plenty of surprising results on the WTA tour this year. Young and upcoming players have caused upsets at the Grand Slams, while the experience of top players showed in important matches. Some players showed extraordinary grit to improve their results after having a not-so-good season last year due to various reasons.They came back with a bang upstaging top seeds and reaching deep stages of Grand Slams and WTA tournaments. Here is the list of the comeback players of the year on the WTA tour:

#5 Timea Bacsinszky

Bacsiniszky returned to the circuit after a long injury layoff. She reached the second rounds at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S Open this year. The Swiss reached the semifinals at Guangzhou Open and quarterfinals at Wuhan, where he recorded the biggest win of her career beating Maria Sharapova in straight sets.

2013 Ranking: 237

2014 Ranking: 48

#4 Andrea Petkovic

Andrea Petkovic’s career has been plagued by injuries. She considered retiring from the game after her injury was identified as a raptured meniscus in her right knee. "I did actually ask for a few internships. I asked a few magazines if I could do an internship. I asked a few politicians that I know if I could do an internship. They all told me you can come whenever you want, and you can stay as long as you want. But I never really wanted."

Her ranking slipped to 177 in March last year. At the beginning of this year, she won her third WTA title at Charleston. Petkovic beat Samantha Stosur in the Fed Cup to ensure Germany’s place in the Fed Cup final. Her best result was a semifinal appearance at the French Open, where she lost to eventual runner-up Simona Halep. She entered the Top 20 in the WTA rankings with this performance.

2013 Ranking: 43

2014 Ranking: 13

#3 Mirjana Lui-Baroni

Mirjana Lui-Baroni made a superb comeback after being out of the game for a considerable amount of time. The Croat departed in the first round at Wimbledon against Victoria Azarenka. She reached the fourth round at the U.S Open beating Garbine Muguruza and Shahar Peer in the first two rounds.

She caused one of the upsets of the tournament upstaging 2014 French Open runner-up Simona Halep in straight sets. This was the best result of her career at the last major and her best performance since reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1999. She lost in the quarterfinals to Italian Sara Errani.

The year did not end there for the 32-year old Mirjana. She reached the final of the Quebec City event and beat Former World No.1 Venus Williams in straight sets. The Croat set a record for the longest gap between titles in WTA history, as her previous win happened 16 years and four months earlier at the 1998 Croatian Bol Ladies Open.

#2 Garbine Muguruza

Garbine Muguruza won her first WTA singles title at the Hobart International this year. She reached the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time beating Caroline Wozniacki in the third round. Muguruza reached the quarterfinals at the French Open after beating World No. 1 Serena Williams in the second round.

She failed to go past the first round at both Wimbledon and the U.S Open. She ended the year by reaching the semifinals in Sofia.

2013 Ranking: 63

2014 Ranking: 20

#1 Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova missed the end of 2013 season due to recurring shoulder problems. She did not have a great start to 2014 after losing in the fourth round at year’s first Major, the Australian Open. After losing to Camila Giorgi in Indian Wells, Sharapova bounced back strongly to win the Stuttgart Open.

She started her clay court campaign by winning the Mutua Madrid Open, before losing in the third round at Rome. The Russian won her second French Open title beating an inspired Simona Halep in tight three sets. She lost to Angelique Kerber in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Caroline Wozniacki got the better of Sharapova in three sets in Round of 16 at the U.S Open.

Sharapova clinched the China Open beating Ana Ivanovic in three sets. This win enabled her to rise to No. 2 in the WTA rankings.

2013 Ranking: 4

2014 Ranking: 2