Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza is the WTA Player of the Year, and US Open champion Sloane Stephens is the Comeback Player of the Year. The women's tennis tour announced the annual honors Friday. The awards are voted on by members of the media. The 24-year-old has had a remarkable season, winning two huge singles titles (in Cincinnati and at Wimbledon) and reaching the semifinals or better at Brisbane, Rome, Birmingham, Stanford and Tokyo.
Wimbledon marked Muguruza's second career Grand Slam title—the first came at the 2016 French Open.
Muguruza also reached a career-high ranking of No. 1 in September. She has since dropped to No. 2, but she is only the second Spaniard to ever reach No. 1 in the WTA rankings.
She also has a chance to finish as the year-end No. 1. Starting on Sunday, Muguruza will compete in her fourth straight WTA Finals in Singapore, where she could dethrone new No. 1 Simona Halep. Halep only leads by 40 points.
Other award recipients include French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko as Most Improved Player, CiCi Bellis as Newcomer of the Year, and Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan as Doubles Team of the Year.
Muguruza beat Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final in July for her second Grand Slam title, then moved up to No. 1 in the rankings for the first time in September.
