American Women Aiming for Greater Heights in 2015

While much has been made of the recent decline in success of American men on the tennis court, the women’s game has not missed a beat in its development of impact players on the WTA Tour.

The last official WTA rankings of 2014 came out Dec. 22, and it featured 18 Americans in the top 150, 13 of which had moved up in the rankings since the beginning of the season.

The American tennis scene has hit a dry spell in recent years, with no American woman, besides the Williams Sisters, winning a Grand Slam since Jennifer Capriati at the 2002 Australian Open. Sloane Stephens was thought to be on the cusp of becoming a star, reaching the semifinals at the 2013 Australian Open and finishing 2013 with a career-high world ranking of 11th in the world. She has since taken a step back and enters 2014 ranked 36th in the world.

With a fresh new crop of young talent looking to break out in 2015, a number of Americans are looking to make a big splash in the coming year. Here are five U.S. players to watch out on the WTA Tour in 2015:

Madison Keys
For the second consecutive season, Madison Keys found herself ranked inside the top 40 at year’s end, finishing at 31st in the world. In 2014, the Evert Tennis Academy pupil captured her first title on the WTA Tour, defeating Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the Eastbourne final. She won main draw matches at the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, and reached the third-round of Wimbledon before retiring with a thigh injury.

Keys will be under the direction of a new coach in 2015, having brought in former Grand Slam champion Lindsey Davenport and her husband, Jon Leach, to help her with local tournaments. Keys had hired Simona Halep’s former coach, Wim Fissette, but the two parted ways just a couple of days into the partnership.

The 19-year-old Keys is currently the third highest-ranked American behind both of the Williams Sisters. She is regarded as one of the top athletic talents on the WTA Tour and has made slight improvements each year since she was a standout talent in her early teens. Under the direction of Davenport, Keys is due for a breakout 2015 campaign.

Coco Vandeweghe
Coco Vandeweghe has shown improvements in her game in each of the last couple of years. She broke into the top 100 for the first time back in 2012, and reached the second-round of the U.S. Open in 2013. Like Keys, Vandeweghe won her first title this past year, knocking off China’s Jie Zheng at the ‘S-Hertogenbosch in Netherlands back in June.

Standing at 6’1’’, Vandeweghe uses a powerful serve and is one of the hardest hitters on the WTA Tour. She used her serve  to give a lot of trouble to some of the top players in the world, and even notched wins versus former world number ones Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic on her run to the Montreal semifinals.

Her serve in 2014 yielded 306 aces in 36 matches, third most on the tour. The New York native finished in the top five for WTA’s Most Improved Player this past year despite not advancing past the Round of 64 in any major. With her powerful serve, Vandeweghe just needs to fine tune her return game and she will become a major factor. 

Christina McHale
The Teaneck, N.J. native looked to be on the brink of stardom back in 2012. She reached a career-high ranking of 33 and reached the third-round at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Christina McHale took a bit of a step back in 2013. She reached the third-round of the U.S. Open, but fell in the first-round of nine different tournaments, resulting in a season-ending ranking of 68th.

She bounced back in 2014 to close in on the top 50. She was able to win a match in both the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, reached two semifinals and lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the Acapulco final. McHale finished the year ranked 52nd in the world, but that first title on the WTA Tour still eludes her.

With wins over Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki under her belt already in her young career, McHale will look to get the monkey off of her back and capture her first title. Despite not advancing out of the third-round of any Grand Slam, her experience in those tournaments will make her a player in the four majors in 2015.

Shelby Rogers
Shelby Rogers was a relative unknown player entering the 2014 season. Even though she had won a main draw match at the French Open in 2013, she entered last year ranked 124th in the world.

She struggled through many of the tournaments in the first half of 2014, but really hit her stride at Bad Gastein in Austria. Rogers won two qualifying matches in order to qualify for the main draw, and went all the way to the tournament’s final before losing to Germany’s Andrea Petkovic.

Rogers play improved as the year went on. She beat hometown favorite Eugenie Bouchard in Montreal before Caroline Wozniacki, and went on to reach the semifinals in Quebec City following the U.S. Open.

A strong second half to last season bodes well for Rogers, will look to continue to climb in the world rankings, in 2015. She knocked off six top 40 players since the start of her summer, and currently finds herself ranked 72nd in the world.

Taylor Townsend
Taylor Townsend is one of the most intriguing young Americans on the women’s tour. Just 18-years old, she played in her first three WTA main draws in 2013 and even reached the second round at Indian Wells.

In 2014, Townsend began the year playing on the ITF tour, where she won titles in Charlottesville and Indian Harbour Beach. Her success earned her the USTA wild card entry into the French Open and she made her Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros ranked 205th in the world. She made her presence known, defeating fellow American and 65th ranked Vania King in the opening round and beating France’s number one Alize Cornet in the second-round.

Her tournament would end with a loss to Carla Suarez-Navarro in the next round, but Townsend established herself on the tour and demonstrated her ability to beat some of the world’s best on the biggest stage.

Townsend is currently ranked 104th in the world, moving up 100 spots since taking the court at Roland Garros. She has already demonstrated that she has mental toughness, and the 18-year old should continue to climb in the world rankings as 2015 progresses.