In the semifinals, Kerber beat surprise semifinalist Johanna Konta in straight sets to reach her first ever Grand Slam final.

Kerber struggled for consistency after this triumph; she endured a three-match losing streak, but seemed to turn things around by reaching the semifinals at Miami and defending her title in Stuttgart.

However, Kerber rediscovered her form on the grass by reaching the Wimbledon final without dropping a set, beating Simona Halep and Venus Williams along the way.

At the US Open, despite facing pressure to overtake Williams for the #1 player in the world, Kerber reached the semifinals without dropping a set.

She reached her second consecutive Grand Slam final at the French Open, but lost in straight sets to Garbiñe Muguruza.

After a shoulder injury forced her out of Montreal, Williams slumped to a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Elina Svitolina at the Olympics.

She was upset in the semifinals of Sydney by Svetlana Kuznetsova and then lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Zhang Shuai, who had never before won a Grand Slam main draw match and was planning to retire after the tournament.

After a hitting session with Steffi Graf in Las Vegas, Halep found her game again and reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells and Miami.

[8] Agnieszka Radwańska continued her scintillating form from the end of 2015 by winning the title in Shenzhen and reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open.

Radwańska suffered a fourth round lost to Tsvetana Pironkova in the French Open in a match, that took 3 days to complete.

Radwańska rediscovered her best tennis for the Asian swing, however, as she reached the semifinals of Tokyo, losing a thrilling three-set match to Caroline Wozniacki.

After suffering early losses in Madrid and Rome, Plíšková lost in the first round of the French Open to Shelby Rogers.

Plíšková began to find her form on the grass, winning the title in Nottingham and losing to Dominika Cibulková in the final of Eastbourne.

This decision paid off as she went on to win Cincinnati, beating Garbiñe Muguruza in the semifinals and Angelique Kerber in the final for the loss of four games each.

She started the year by retiring from her opening-round match in Brisbane and then suffered a shock third-round loss to Barbora Strýcová at the Australian Open.

After surprise losses to Elina Svitolina in Dubai, Andrea Petkovic in Doha, and Christina McHale in Indian Wells, Muguruza started to find her form in Miami, where she lost to Victoria Azarenka in a high-quality straight-set match in the fourth round.

Muguruza suffered early exits throughout the Asian swing, but she officially qualified for Singapore by reaching the quarterfinals at Linz.

After a fourth-round showing at the Australian Open, Keys struggled until May, when she reached the final of Rome, losing to Serena Williams.

Cibulková lost to Carla Suarez Navarro in the third round of the French Open but rebounded by winning the title in Eastbourne, coming from a set and a break down to upset Radwańska in the quarterfinals and beating Karolína Plíšková in the final.

At Wimbledon, Cibulková once again defeated Radwańska in another 3 set battle in the fourth round before losing to Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals.

Cibulková returned to the top ten after reaching the semifinals in Stanford, but struggled with injury for the next couple of weeks due to playing a heavy grass-court schedule.

Cibulková took a wildcard into Linz knowing that she would qualify for Singapore by winning the title, and she did, beating Viktorija Golubic in the final.

She did not show good results in the following tournaments, but Kuznetsova recovered in Miami, beating players such as Serena Williams and Ekaterina Makarova en route to reach the final, where she ultimately lost to Victoria Azarenka.

The Russian enjoyed moderate success on clay court tournaments; she reached the 4th round of Roland Garros, the quarterfinals of Rome and the semifinals of Prague, but failed in Madrid.

Finally, the duo won their first clay tournament in Rome, but failed to achieve their Career Grand Slam at Roland Garros.

[18] Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic reached a final already in their first joint season's debut at the Apia International Sydney.

They won four out of five major clay tournaments, Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid and the French Open, crushing doubles giants as Hingis/Mirza, Makarova/Vesnina and Mattek-Sands/Šafářová in the finals.

However, the pair showed some great results in the American continent, claiming the Rogers Cup, the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and finally reaching the semifinals of the US Open, losing only to Mattek-Sands/Šafářová.

Both players switched between different partners in the new season, and finally they decided to play together starting with Indian Wells, where they reached the semifinals.

The pair continued to enjoy moderate success throughout the year, reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open, as well as the semifinals in Birmingham and final in Eastbourne.