{"id":328824,"date":"2025-12-05T06:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328824\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T06:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:14:08","slug":"which-wta-star-is-most-likely-to-win-their-first-grand-slam-title-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328824\/","title":{"rendered":"Which WTA star is most likely to win their first Grand Slam title in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2025, Madison Keys broke through as the season’s sole first-time Grand Slam champion, realising her dream by capturing the Australian Open crown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the new season approaches, a big question arises: will 2026 witness another star achieve that same milestone?<\/p>\n

This was precisely the topic debated on the latest episode of The Tennis, where the panel assessed the leading contenders on the WTA tour.<\/p>\n

Amanda Anisimova<\/a> is the highest-ranked women\u2019s player entering the new year without a major title, and one fancied by many to take that leap next season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why she\u2019s that ranking. I think she had a great year making back-to-back [Grand Slam] finals,\u201d noted Australian doubles No.1 Ellen Perez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see how she bounced back from the [Wimbledon] finals loss she had against Iga [Swiatek], a convincing scoreline, but it shows you are human, you get nervous\u2026 after that she was very fearless and she didn\u2019t let that bother her.\u201d<\/p>\n

PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode of The Tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

RELATED: Anisimova\u2019s \u201clearning process\u201d to becoming a superstar<\/a><\/p>\n

Perez praised the 24-year-old\u2019s mental strength and strong support system off the court \u2013 factors she believes position Anisimova ideally for a 2026 breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looks very composed and in a good place,\u201d Perez added.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a good group of family and friends well outside the tennis world and I think that\u2019s important. She doesn\u2019t get wrapped up too much in all the other stuff, she grounds herself and resets really well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2025, Madison Keys broke through as the season’s sole first-time Grand Slam champion, realising her dream by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-328824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}