Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina's Madrid epic, and more top WTA 1000 matches of 2024

The 2024 tennis season was filled with noteworthy stories, breakthrough moments, and countless trophy lifts. But what were the best matches of the year that was?

We rolled the tape, and this week, TENNIS.com is counting down some of the best WTA matches of the past year (with our ATP picks to come next week). Our countdown continues with the best WTA 1000 matches of the year, inclusive of all of the tour's crown-jewel events. Who rose to the occasion best on the biggest stages?

5. Maria Sakkari def. Coco Gauff, Indian Wells SF

2024 ended up as a year Maria Sakkari will likely want to forget: The Greek won back-to-back matches at just six tournaments before a shoulder injury derailed her after the Olympics and, eventually, brought her season to an early end.

But a bright spot for the 29-year-old came at March's BNP Paribas Open, where she reached her second career WTA 1000 final before losing to Iga Swiatek. Under what eventually was a short-lived partnership with coach David Witt, ninth-seeded Sakkari beat Diana Shnaider, Caroline Garcia, Diane Parry and Emma Navarro (both Shnaider and Navarro won the first set, and Sakkari also went the distance vs. Parry) to set up a semifinal against Coco Gauff, whom she'd beaten four times previously, but had lost both of their 2023 matches.

Sakkari looked on course to an easy victory when she built a 6-4, 5-2 lead, but it soon became anything but. In a clash that lasted nearly three hours, and was delayed by rain twice, Sakkari ended up outlasting Gauff 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2. The two-hour, 42-minute victory ended the Greek's five-match losing streak to Top 10 opposition and was her first win over a player ranked in the Top 3 in more than a year.

"I knew from the beginning it was going to be very tough," she told reporters. "You know, a lot of things happened today. Rain delays, obviously, that second set could have been different. But I was thinking of that finish line too much, and then I was just thinking too much on how to close out the match. That didn't really help me. It freaked me out a little bit. I was too nervous.

"But, you know, I'm very proud of myself that I kept my nerves, and then I just fought hard in that third set."

Sakkari's spring was fruitful after a scuffling start to the season, one where she admitted that she felt like she "couldn't hit a ball over the net." Though she lost 6-4, 6-0 to Swiatek in the final, Sakkari went deep in her next two events, with a quarterfinal effort in Miami and semifinal showing in Charleston.

Following that, though, things took a turn: She won just six matches for the rest of the season.

4. Iga Swiatek def. Linda Noskova, Miami R3

Swiatek might tell you that she saw enough of Linda Noskova in 2024 to last a lifetime—but after three thrilling matches between the two over the last 12 months, this rivalry is one that tennis fans might want a lot more of.

The five-time Grand Slam champion and the 20-year-old rising star played four times in all last season, with Noskova scoring the first famous victory of her career with a third-round upset of Swiatek at the Australian Open. But there was more drama between the two to come, and though Swiatek won all three of the subsequent matches, two of them extended deep into a deciding set.

Read more: In shock loss to Linda Noskova, Iga Swiatek felt she was facing Sabalenka or Rybakina

The 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4 third round between the two in Miami, as Swiatek chased an unprecedented second Sunshine Double, was the best of the bunch.

After praising the youngster's power game in the aftermath of losing to her in Melbourne, Swiatek admitted to "not being 100% comfortable" in the Miami matchup, even though she had exacted emphatic revenge against Noskova 6-4, 6-0 on her way to winning Indian Wells.

Noskova saved a set point en route to winning a tense first set, and nearly reeled Swiatek back in from a 5-1 deficit in the second set when she held break point for 5-5. In the third, the Czech again was snake-bitten by an almost, as she let a 0-40 deficit go by in the final game. Swiatek hit three clean winners to deny the youngster any chance to get

"It's not like we can take everything for granted," Swiatek said post-match, telling reporters that there was "no sense to talk about [another] Sunshine Double" at that stage of the tournament.

As it turned out, Swiatek's prognostication eventually came true: In the next round, Swiatek was handed a stunning 6-4, 6-2 defeat by Ekaterina Alexandova, another power player, in the Russian's first career win against a world No. 1.

3. Jessica Pegula def. Paula Badosa, Cincinnati SF

The semifinal match between Paula Badosa and Jessica Pegula at the Cincinnati Open was a head-to-head clash between two top players in the midst of a revitalized year. While they each were bouncing back from troughs in form—Badosa, a career-threatening back injury in 2023, and Pegula, two long layoffs due to neck and rib problems in 2024—the two women quickly established themselves as two of the most red-hot players of the summer.

When they met for a spot in the Cincinnati Open final, Pegula had won eight straight matches on the heels of claiming her second consecutive National Bank Open title, while Badosa had won her first title in two years to start the summer in Washington, D.C.

A mid-match rain delay changed the complexion of the match, which Pegula had started strongly: She won the first four games, broke the Spaniard three times in the first set, and eventually led by a set and a break at 6-3, 2-0. But eventually, the first three-setter between the two in their all-time head-to-head was on the cards.

The 1-1 game in the third set, where Pegula saved four break points, was ultimately critical. She later won the match's last three games, breaking Badosa for 5-3 from 30-0 down, and saving a break point to finish.

"I just needed to not get frustrated," Pegula said post-match. "She was serving so well there for a while. She hits the ball so hard, and I was just like, 'I don't really know what to do' sometimes. It's hard to find that balance of trying to go for your shots but also trying to be consistent.

"I wanted to remind myself to be aggressive but at the same time, to dig out some points when I needed to, and to serve well. I knew it was going to be hard to break her, but luckily I played a couple of good points, and was able to serve it out."

2. Aryna Sabalenka def. Elena Rybakina, Madrid SF

The sixth ultra-competitive chapter in the nip-and-tuck head-to-head between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina took place at the Mutua Madrid Open.

But when the match began, the ninth all-time meeting between the two, a sixth three-setter looked to be the furthest outcome possible. Rybakina, seeking a first final in Madrid after previously winning Rome, had won three of the pair's last four matches, including a rout to win Brisbane, and dominated the opening frame.

Coming off of a match-point-saving comeback against Yulia Putintseva in the previous round, Rybakina landed 75% of her first serves, and pocketed a breadstick against an out-of-sorts Sabalenka in just 24 minutes.

The at-the-time two-time Madrid finalist wasn't about to roll over easily. Finding form on her serve, she said, gave the confidence to stay in the match. But the real opportunity came deep in set two when Rybakina, two points from victory, framed a sitter of a forehand, off what she later dubbed a "regular ball."

"I think that I choose the correct angle and everything," the Kazakh later rued. "It's just I went for too much and it went wide."

More than an hour later, and at the close of a winner-take-all third set tiebreak, the match was Sabalenka's, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(5).

It was a lesson, Sabalenka said—not like the big hitter needed one—to always stick to your guns.

Read more: Aryna Sabalenka chased Elena Rybakina for three sets, before winning a photo-finish tiebreaker in Madrid

“When I was winning, I was focusing on myself and I was staying really aggressive on those key moments," Sabalenka later said. "When she was winning, she was more aggressive than me.

“So I think the main key for me is just to focus on myself and to stay aggressive no mater what.”

1. Coco Gauff def. Zheng Qinwen, WTA Finals F

While not a WTA 1000-level match, the final WTA tournament match of the season more than rightfully earned its way into the top spot on our list.

Coco Gauff's late-fall resurgence, which began with a gritty run to the China Open title in Beijing, culminated with a historic effort at the season-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh, where she toppled No.1 seed Sabalenka and No.2 seed Swiatek en route to becoming the youngest player in 20 years to win the year-end title.

To finish off the week, Gauff took three hours and four minutes to see off Zheng Qinwen, the Olympic gold medalist, that was her most impressive comeback of all. In the 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) affair, Gauff had to rally from a break down in the second set, and she was twice down a break in the third set, where Zheng served for the match at 5-4.

Read More: Coco Gauff has already won a WTA title at every level in her career after victory at WTA Finals

At the conclusion of the match, the longest year-end final since 2008 and Gauff's 13th win in her last 15 matches of 2024, she dropped to the court, exhausted but "proud" of the fight.

She said the reaction was fitting, in more ways than one.

"At the end of the match, when I, like, fell on the floor, I didn't think I was going to do that," Gauff said. "I kind of, like, made a promise to myself that I will only save that for Grand Slams. But honestly, to the way the match went, I was like, 'I'm just tired. I just want to lay on the ground.'"