In conjunction with the ongoing Hologic WTA Tour mission of championing women’s health, the WTA Charities ACEing Cancer by Hologic campaign is a philanthropic program dedicated to supporting the fight against cancers affecting women.
Through the first six months of the 2022 season, the campaign has raised $36,500 USD by donations for every ace struck by a WTA player at WTA 500 and 1000-level tournaments this year. Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina tops the leaderboard with 141 aces at the WTA 500 and 1000-levels, with Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur behind her with 128 aces.
Rybakina’s powerful serve laid the groundwork for her 2022 breakout at Wimbledon, where the 23-year-old became the first player representing Kazakhstan to win a major title. Her best serving performance of the season came en route to her Wimbledon title, where she fired 15 aces to win her quarterfinal. Across all levels, Rybakina is averaging nearly six aces per match and she ranked third on tour in both first and second serves won and service games won.
World No.5 Jabeur has spent her 2022 campaign making history for Arab and North African tennis. She reached a career-high ranking at No.2, won two WTA titles in Madrid and Berlin, and made her first major final at Wimbledon. The Tunisian trailblazer has already posted 36 wins this season, second behind only World No.1 Iga Swiatek.
Hologic and WTA spotlight the importance of women’s health in Madrid
Ekaterina Alexandrova sits at No.3 on the Race for Aces Leaderboard with 121 aces. The 27-year-old is averaging nearly five aces per match, which paved the way to her second career-title on the grass of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in The Netherlands in June.
Rounding out the Top 5 on the Leaderboard are World No.4 Paula Badosa and No.3 Maria Sakkari. Both players enjoyed strong hard-court swings at the start of the year, with Badosa winning her third WTA title in 12 months in Sydney, while Sakkari made the biggest final of her career in Indian Wells in March.
The next WTA 500 event on the calendar begins next week at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California, where Rybakina, Jabeur, Sakkari, and Badosa are set to kick off their summer hard-court seasons. San Jose will set the stage for the tour’s back-to-back WTA 1000 events in Toronto and Cincinnati.
The 2022 cancer research grant funded through the ACEing Cancer campaign will be dedicated to the memory of former WTA player Jeanne Dubin, younger sister of Chris Evert, who passed away from ovarian cancer in 2020. Click here to donate to the cause.
