Aryna Sabalenka has been voted as the WTA's Player of the Year award for the very first time in her career following a stellar season on the court. 

Sabalenka, who won four world titles in 2024, beat Iga Swiatek to the accolade, with the Pole having won the previous two years. 

The Belarusian started the year strongly, retaining her Australian Open title against Zheng Qinwen in January before winning the US Open in September.

Sabalenka finished the season unbeaten in hard court majors, having pulled out of Wimbledon with a shoulder injury before being beaten by Mirra Andreeva at the French Open. 

In all, she has won 18 out of 19 grand slam matches since January, for a winning percentage of 94.7%.

This is the highest grand slam score over a calendar year since Serena Williams in 2015 among players who have played at least 10 matches.

Nine years ago, the American had a 96.2% winning percentage, coming very close to achieving the calendar grand slam.

Sabalenka also secured victories at the Cincinnati Open in August and the Wuhan Open in October, becoming the first woman to win the Chinese event three times. 

She also ended Swiatek's 11-month reign at the summit of the WTA world rankings in October, finishing the season with 9,416 points to the Pole's 8,295. 

drumroll, please...

Congratulations to @SabalenkaA, your 2024 Player of the Year!

Check out the full video over on Youtube

— wta (@WTA) December 9, 2024

Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini were named as the Doubles Team of the Year after lifting WTA 1000 titles firstly on home soil at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia and then the China Open in addition to the WTA 500 Upper Austria Ladies Linz.

They reached their first grand slam final together at Roland-Garros before capping off a memorable summer by winning the gold medal in doubles at the Paris Olympics. 

Emma Navarro won the Most Improved Player of the Year award, Lulu Sun was named Newcomer of the Year and Paula Badosa was handed the Comeback Player of the Year.