The dust has settled after Ash Barty's retirement. As the WTA season winds down, we take stock of the tour

HIGHLIGHTS: Iga Swiatek's win over Coco Gauff at this year's Miami Open. Tonight, in San Diego, the American will try to get her first win over the world No. 1 in four tries.

It’s musical chairs time on the WTA Tour. Who will have a seat at the table when the scrambling stops, and the year-end championships begin, in Fort Worth on October 31?

In reality, this season has felt like one long scramble, for players and officials alike.

In the wake of the pandemic and Peng Shuai’s disappearance, the WTA has had to cobble together a new end-of-season schedule, sans China. Former major-money events in Beijing, Wuhan and Shenzhen are out, replaced by the 500-level event happening now in San Diego, the 1000 in Guadalajara next week, and the eight-player WTA Finals in Fort Worth, which starts on Halloween.

As far as cobbled-together lineups go, it could be worse. The money is still good: $2.5 million in Guadalajara, and $5 million in Fort Worth. The fan support has been solid in San Diego, and should be better in Guadalajara, where the women played to raucous crowds last year, when the Mexican resort city hosted the season-ending championships. And unlike when the tour departed for China, these tournaments are easy for fans in Europe and the U.S. to follow. Globalization, in and out of tennis, isn’t the be-all and end-all it once was. (Also, FYI, don’t sleep on Fort Worth. You may not think of it as a fall destination, but there are a couple of top-tier art museums there—the Kimbell and The Modern—each of which is staging an anniversary exhibit right now.)

Like the schedule, the WTA rankings and pecking order have also spent 2022 adjusting to an unforeseen, earth-shaking event. In this case, the event was Ash Barty’s retirement—at 25, at the top of her game—in March. Back then, many of us assumed that the women’s game would go through a tumultuous transition period before another clear-cut No. 1 emerged. Instead, a clear-cut No. 1 emerged within a week. Iga Swiatek had been in the ascent while Barty was still on tour; the Pole made the semifinals at the Australian Open. But her game really took off in Indian Wells and Miami, just as Barty was hanging up her racquet. With her 37-match win streak and two Grand Slam titles, Swiatek has put the past in the rearview mirror and made herself the face of the women’s game. That’s a positive development for any tour, league or sport.

Beneath the Swiatek stratosphere, though, the expected tumult has materialized. Maybe more so than anyone would have guessed. Over the last 10 months, the tour’s top tier has essentially been replaced by its second tier. When 2022 began, Anett Kontaveit, Maria Sakkari, Paula Badosa, Barbora Krejcikova, Aryna Sabalenka and Garbiñe Muguruza were all in the Top 10. They looked like contenders to win major titles and reach No. 1, yet none came close to living up to that promise. If the draw for Fort Worth were made today, Kontaveit, Sakkari, Badosa, Krejcikova and Muguruza wouldn’t be in it, and Sabalenka is just hanging on at No. 7.

Instead, a brand-new new guard looks set to take their places. As the players I just mentioned have faltered, Ons Jabeur, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Caroline Garcia and Daria Kasatkina—all of whom are in the Top 8 in the year-end race—have prospered. Jabeur made two Grand Slam finals. Gauff made one. Pegula reached the quarters in Melbourne, Paris and New York. Garcia won her first WTA 1000, in Cincinnati, and made her first Slam semi, at the US Open. Kasatkina also made her first Slam semi, in Paris.

How much upheaval is too much? Or should we just accept that, for every player who fails, there will be one who succeeds, often in ways she hasn’t before? This season, I was disappointed to see Kontaveit, Badosa and Sakkari underperform expectations week after week. Badosa and Sakkari in particular seemed to be ready to do more. At the same time, Jabeur, Gauff, Pegula, Garcia and Kasatkina are among my favorite players and personalities on either tour.

Jabeur has brought an adult sophistication and soulfulness to tennis, and made the sport visible to the Arab world. Gauff has been pitch perfect on U.S. social issues. Kasatkina came out, and thrived. Garcia made the most of her slick talent for the first time. Pegula showed that slow and steady can still win the race—or at least get you close. Now that they’ve picked up the slack in 2022, all I can do is hope they don’t drop it in 2023, because tennis is better off with them in starring roles.

Tennis is also better off, in my opinion, with reliable champions and easily recognizable faces at No. 1—success sells. Whoever wins the game of musical chairs to make it to Fort Worth, Swiatek’s relentless march to No. 1, and her ability to weather the pressure there, will be the top headline of the WTA season.

Barty’s retirement seemed ominous at the time, and could have led the tour in many different directions. One where Swiatek dominates, and appealing players like Jabeur, Gauff, Kasatkina, and Garcia follow in her wake, is a direction I think most of us have been happy to take.