FCI Staff Writer Sacramento 
fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fcielitecompetitor.com Shutterstock-Mai-Groves-photo-credit-Editorial-use-
February 14, 2024,
Teenage life, planned out and lived on a beneficial pathway, opens up the future to incredible possibilities with no ceiling.
Then, when you turn 23, you have a resume of historic accomplishments.
Just ask the sensational young tennis star Dayana Yastremska.
Dayana Yastremska is a Ukrainian professional tennis player who has been ranked as high as world Number 21 by the WTA, achieved in January 2020.
Dayana has won three WTA Tour titles with her best performance at the majors in reaching the semifinals at the 2024 Australian Open.
Incredibly impressive.
Unbelievably impressive.
A junior Grand Slam tournament runner-up in both singles and doubles, Ms. Yastremska had a quick breakthrough onto the WTA Tour.
She made her debut in the top 100 and won two titles when she was 18 years old, including her first at the Hong Kong Open in 2018. She had a very successful 2019 that helped her rise from No. 58 at the start of the year up to No. 22 by the end of the season.
We watched more of her tape and she is a tall athlete who hits the ball with precision and accuracy.
Her former coach Sascha Bajin described Yastremska in the following terms: “She’s a great mover and she has incredible power. Her ground strokes are very powerful.”
Ms. Yastremska is an aggressive baseline player, whose attacking style allows her to hit a large number of winners.
Our luminary hit 33 winners in her first two finals, and 49 winners when she won her third title.
Her very aggressive playing style also lends itself to a high unforced error count. Sounds like another very tall girl in France’s Oceane Dodin.
As of the 2019 Australian Open, Dayana was ranked as the most aggressive player on the WTA Tour, having led the tour with 28.6 per cent of her shots ending in a winner, an unforced error, or an opponent’s forced error.
Her powerful groundstrokes are hit with relentless power, depth, and speed, with her forehand being her best shot, due to the extreme amount of racquet head speed.
Watching her on film, we saw that up close and personal.
She is capable of winning a high percentage of points when she hits an inside-in forehand in particular, and she can hit winners from any position of the court with her forehand.
This statuesque warrior also possesses an incredibly powerful backhand, which is typically hit flat, allowing her to hit sharply angled winners. She can also strategically apply slice to her backhand, allowing her to break up the pace of rallies and construct points intelligently.
Impressive.
Get this.
Her average first serve speed is about 100 miles per hour, although her first serve speed can scale at 116 mph, allowing her to serve numerous aces in any match, sometimes getting her out of trouble.
We can see why she made such a strong charge at the 2024 Australian Open.
She became just the second qualifier in the Open Era to defeat two former Grand Slam champions at a Major since Jelena Dokic who upset Martina Hingis and Mary Pierce at Wimbledon in 1999.
Her highlights were amazing.
To begin, let’s go back to the 2023 US Open Qualifiers where she took on the former French Canadian great in Eugenie Bouchard.
Remember her?
She was big back in the day.
At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the final of a major singles tournament, finishing runner-up to Petra Kvitová.
Eugenie also reached the semifinals of the 2014 Australian Open and 2014 French Open.
Having won the 2012 Wimbledon girls’ title as a junior, she was named WTA Newcomer of the Year at the end of the 2013 WTA Tour. Bouchard received the WTA Most Improved Player award for the 2014 season and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 5, becoming the first Canadian tennis player to be ranked in the top 5 in singles.
Well, 2012 and 2014. Almost a decade ago.
Currently she is ranked 290 as of January 2024.
Having said that, any former champion can be dangerous.
Still, she fell to Dayana.
When it mattered. At the mighty 2023 US Open Grand Slam.
Then, at the 2024 Australian Open, when Dayana made her deep run to the semi-finals, along the way she took out the number 18 player in the world, in Victoria Azarenka.
Let’s remind ourselves who Victoria is and what she has accomplished.
Victoria is a Belarusian professional tennis player.
Victoria is a former world No. 1 in singles, having claimed the top ranking for the first time on January 30, 2012. She was the year-end Number one in 2012 and has held the top ranking for a combined total of 51 weeks.
This warrior has won 21 WTA Tour singles titles, including two Major singles titles at the 2012 and 2013 Australian Opens, becoming the first Belarusian player, male or female, to win a major singles title.
There’s more.
Victoria is also a three-time major finalist at the US Open, finishing runner-up to Serena Williams in both 2012 and 2013 and to Naomi Osaka in 2020.
In singles, she has won six Premier Mandatory tournaments (including the Sunshine Double in 2016), four Premier 5 tournaments, and the singles bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. She was the runner-up at the 2011 WTA Finals to Petra Kvitová, reached four other major singles semifinals (Australian Open in 2023, Wimbledon in 2011 and 2012, and the French Open in 2013), and had nine other major quarterfinal appearances.
She finished with a year-end top 10 singles ranking for five consecutive years between 2009 and 2013.
You are impressed, true?
Simply told, in order to compete in the semi-finals, Dayana had to be a slayer of royalty.
The future looks bright.
She has powerfully made the transition from teenage star to a 23 year old super star.
Given what appears to be in her future, it would be wise for all of us as fans to keep charting Dayana’s pathway.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Shutterstock-Mai-Groves-photo-credit-Editorial-use-fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fcielitecompetitor.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayana_Yastremska
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Bouchard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Azarenka
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
You must be logged in to post a comment.