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. | |
| 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
editThe 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
editFebruary
editMarch
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 |
7–6, 7–6 |
|||
6–1, 6–4 |
|||||
| 21 Mar | Lipton Championships Key Biscayne, United States Tier I event Hard – $1,550,000 – 96S/48D Singles – Doubles |
6–1, 6–3 |
|||
6–4, 6–4 |
April
editMay
editJune
editJuly
edit| Week | Tournament | Champions | Runners-up | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jul | Fed Cup Semifinals Nagoya, Japan, Carpet (i) Bayonne, France, Carpet (i) |
Semifinals winners |
Semifinals losers |
||
| 15 Jul | Torneo Internazionali Femminili di Palermo Palermo, Italy Tier IV event Clay – $107,500 – 32S/16D Singles – Doubles |
6–3, 6–3 |
|||
6–1, 6–2 |
|||||
| 23 Jul | Summer Olympics Atlanta, United States Summer Olympics Hard – 64S/32D Singles – Doubles |
Fourth Place | |||
7–6(8), 6–2 |
7–6(8), 6–4 |
||||
7–6(6), 6–4 |
6–1, 6–3 |
August
editSeptember
editOctober
editNovember
editStatistical Information
editThese 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 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 0 | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | |||||||||
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
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)
Kimiko Date – Tokyo (Tier III), San Diego (2)
Julie Halard-Decugis – Hobart, Paris (2)
Martina Hingis – Filderstadt, Oakland (2)
Iva Majoli – Tokyo (Tier I), Essen (2)
Conchita Martínez – Rome, Moscow (2)
Shi-Ting Wang – Surabaya, Beijing (2)
Henrieta Nagyová – Warsaw (1)
Barbara Paulus – Maria Lankowitz (1)
Gloria Pizzichini – Bol (1)
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy – Oklahoma City (1)
Dominique Van Roost – Cardiff (1)
The following players won their first title:
Rankings
editBelow are the 1996 WTA year-end rankings in both singles and doubles competition:
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See also
editReferences
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.