Aryna Sabalenka leads WTA awards nominees with Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka also nominated

The top five players in the WTA Rankings have all been nominated for the WTA Player of the Year award while the likes of Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal are among those nominated in other categories.

Aryna Sabalenka is the favourite to be crowned the 2024 WTA Player of the Year as she won two Grand Slams – the Australian Open and US Open – and also finished the year at No 1 in the rankings for the first time in her career after returning to top spot in October.

The world No 1 is up against reigning French Open champion Iga Swiatek – who won the most titles this year with five – WTA Finals champion Coco Gauff, world No 4 Jasmine Paolini and Australian Open finalist Zheng Qinwen.

Gauff won three titles in 2024, including the China Open and WTA Finals, while Paolini started the year at No 29 before enjoying an incredible rise. The Italian finished runner-up at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and won her maiden WTA 1000 title in Dubai.

Zheng, meanwhile, is sitting at a career-high No 5 and finished runner-up to Sabalenka in Melbourne and also to Gauff at the WTA Finals.

The five nominees for the Comeback Player of the Year award are Naomi Osaka, Paula Badosa, Karolina Muchova, Amanda Anisimova and Emma Raducanu.

Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka returned to the WTA Tour in January after more than a year out as she gave birth to her daughter Shai in July last year. Osaka had slumped to outside the top 800 in the rankings, but will finish the year at No 59 after several impressive runs.

2024 WTA Tour Awards – ft Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Zheng Qinwen

Badosa struggled with injury last year and at one point slipped out of the top 100, but she enjoyed an incredible second half of the season and will start the 2025 campaign at No 12.

Muchova had wrist surgery in February, but was back on the tour a few months later. She reached the final in Palermo and also made it to the semi-final of the US Open while Anisimova returned to the Tour after her 2023 sabbatical. The American finished runner-up in her maiden WTA 1000 final in Canada.

Raducanu missed the second half of the 2023 season as she underwent surgery on both her wrists and one ankle. After a sluggish return at the start of the year, she found form on grass as she reached the semi-final in Nottingham, quarter-final in Eastbourne and last 16 at Wimbledon. She started the year at No 301 and finished at No 58.