The WTA Tour is the elite tour for professional women's tennis organised by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). The 1996 WTA Tour included the four Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV events. ITF tournaments are not part of the WTA Tour, although they award points for the WTA World Ranking.
 Steffi Graf finished the year as world No. 1 for the record-breaking eighth time in her career. She won seven tournaments during the season, including three majors at the French Open, the Wimbledon Championships, and the US Open, as well as the WTA Tour Championships. She also won three Tier I events and finished runner-up at the fourth major, the Australian Open. | |
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Duration | January 1 – November 25, 1996 |
| Edition | 26th |
| Tournaments | 51 |
| Categories | Grand Slam (4) WTA Championships Summer Olympics WTA Tier I (8) WTA Tier II (15) WTA Tier III (11) WTA Tier IV (11) |
| Achievements (singles) | |
| Most tournament titles |  Steffi Graf (7) |
| Most tournament finals |  Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (9) |
| Prize money leader | Steffi Graf (US$2,665,706) |
| Points leader | Steffi Graf (4,649) |
| Awards | |
| Player of the year | Steffi Graf |
| Doubles team of the year | |
| Most improved player of the year |  Martina Hingis |
| Newcomer of the year |  Anna Kournikova |
| Comeback player of the year |  Jennifer Capriati |
← 1995 1997 → | |
Schedule edit
The table below shows the 1996 WTA Tour schedule.
- Key
| Grand Slam events |
| Summer Olympic Games |
| Year-end championships |
| Tier I events |
| Tier II events |
| Tier III events |
| Tier IV events |
| Team events |
January edit
February edit
March edit
| Week | Tournament | Champions | Runners-up | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mar | State Farm Evert Cup Indian Wells, United States Tier I event Hard – $550,000 – 56S/28D Singles – Doubles |
Steffi Graf 7–6, 7–6 |
Conchita Martínez |
Lindsay Davenport Kimiko Date |
 Amanda Coetzer Chanda Rubin Nathalie Tauziat Lindsay Lee
|
Chanda Rubin  Brenda Schultz-McCarthy6–1, 6–4 |
Julie Halard-Decugis Nathalie Tauziat
| ||||
| 21 Mar | Lipton Championships Key Biscayne, United States Tier I event Hard – $1,550,000 – 96S/48D Singles – Doubles |
Steffi Graf 6–1, 6–3 |
Chanda Rubin |
Lindsay Davenport Karina Habšudová |
Kimiko Date Anke Huber Gabriela Sabatini Irina Spîrlea
|
 Jana Novotná Arantxa Sánchez Vicario6–4, 6–4 |
Meredith McGrath  Larisa Neiland
|
April edit
May edit
June edit
July edit
| Week | Tournament | Champions | Runners-up | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jul | Fed Cup Semifinals Nagoya, Japan, Carpet (i) Bayonne, France, Carpet (i) |
Semifinals winners United States 5–0 Spain 3-2 |
Semifinals losers Japan France |
||
| 15 Jul | Torneo Internazionali Femminili di Palermo Palermo, Italy Tier IV event Clay – $107,500 – 32S/16D Singles – Doubles |
 Barbara Schett6–3, 6–3 |
Sabine Hack |
Jana Kandarr Silvia Farina |
 Stephanie Devillé Sandra Dopfer Sarah Pitkowski Henrieta Nagyová
|
| Janette Husárová Barbara Schett 6–1, 6–2 |
Florencia Labat Barbara Rittner
| ||||
| 23 Jul | Summer Olympics Atlanta, United States Summer Olympics Hard – 64S/32D Singles – Doubles |
 Gold |
 Silver |
 Bronze |
Fourth Place |
| Lindsay Davenport 7–6(8), 6–2 |
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario |
Jana Novotná 7–6(8), 6–4 |
Mary Joe Fernández
| ||
| Gigi Fernández Mary Joe Fernández 7–6(6), 6–4 |
Jana Novotná Helena Suková |
Conchita Martínez Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 6–1, 6–3 |
Manon Bollegraf Brenda Schultz-McCarthy
|
August edit
September edit
October edit
November edit
Statistical Information edit
These tables present the number of singles (S), doubles (D), and mixed doubles (X) titles won by each player and each nation during the season, within all the tournament categories of the 1996 WTA World Tour: the Grand Slam tournaments, the Year-end championships and the Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV tournaments. The players/nations are sorted by:
- total number of titles (a doubles title won by two players representing the same nation counts as only one win for the nation);
- highest amount of highest category tournaments (for example, having a single Grand Slam gives preference over any kind of combination without a Grand Slam title);
- a singles > doubles > mixed doubles hierarchy;
- alphabetical order (by family names for players).
Titles won by player edit
| Total titles | Player | Grand Slam tournaments |
Year-end championships |
Tier I tournaments |
Tier II tournaments |
Tier III tournaments |
Tier IV tournaments |
All titles | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | D | X | S | D | S | D | S | D | S | D | S | D | S | D | X | ||
| 11 | Arantxa Sánchez Vicario |
1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 0 | ||||||||
| 1 | Sandra Cacic |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Els Callens |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Julie Halard-Decugis |
1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 |  Yayuk Basuki |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Monica Seles |
1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Lindsay Davenport |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | ||||||||
| 4 | Mary Joe Fernández |
1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Chanda Rubin |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||
| 6 | Larisa Neiland |
1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | ||||||||
| 2 |  Iva Majoli |
1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Kyōko Nagatsuka |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Gigi Fernández |
1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 |  Natasha Zvereva |
1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Kristie Boogert |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 10 | Jana Novotná |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||
| 4 | Meredith McGrath |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |||||||||
| 6 | Brenda Schultz-McCarthy |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | |||||||||
| 1 | Sabine Appelmans |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Manon Bollegraf [a] |
1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Steffi Graf |
3 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Irina Spîrlea |
|||||||||||||||||
| Linda Wild |
|||||||||||||||||
| Rika Hiraki |
|||||||||||||||||
| Naoko Kijimuta |
|||||||||||||||||
| Kimiko Date |
|||||||||||||||||
| Ai Sugiyama |
|||||||||||||||||
| Gloria Pizzichini |
|||||||||||||||||
| Laura Montalvo |
|||||||||||||||||
| Paola Suárez |
|||||||||||||||||
List of players and singles titles won, last name alphabetically:
Steffi Graf – Indian Wells, Miami, Berlin, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, WTA Championships (7)
Monica Seles – Sydney, Australian Open, Eastbourne, Montreal, Tokyo (Tier II) (5)
Jana Novotná – Madrid, Zurich, Chicago, Philadelphia (4)
Ruxandra Dragomir – Budapest, Karlovy Vary, Pattaya City (3)- Anke Huber – Rosmalen, Leipzig, Luxembourg (3)
Kimiko Date – Tokyo (Tier III), San Diego (2)- Lindsay Davenport – Strasbourg, Manhattan Beach (2)
Julie Halard-Decugis – Hobart, Paris (2)
Martina Hingis – Filderstadt, Oakland (2)
Iva Majoli – Tokyo (Tier I), Essen (2)
Conchita Martínez – Rome, Moscow (2)- Arantxa Sánchez Vicario – Hilton Head, Hamburg (2)
Shi-Ting Wang – Surabaya, Beijing (2)- Sandra Cacic – Auckland (1)
- Meredith McGrath – Birmingham (1)
Henrieta Nagyová – Warsaw (1)
Barbara Paulus – Maria Lankowitz (1)
Gloria Pizzichini – Bol (1)- Lisa Raymond – Quebec City (1)
- Barbara Schett – Palermo (1)
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy – Oklahoma City (1)- Irina Spîrlea – Amelia Island (1)
Dominique Van Roost – Cardiff (1)- Linda Wild – Jakarta (1)
The following players won their first title:
Rankings edit
Below are the 1996 WTA year-end rankings in both singles and doubles competition:
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Hill, James (2011-11-11). "Corel WTA Tour Rankings Rank Date: 23 November 1996" (PDF). WTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
- ^ Hill, James (2011-11-11). "Corel WTA Tour Rankings Rank Date: 23 November 1996" (PDF). WTA. Retrieved 2011-05-24.