Grass-court Power Rankings: Unexpected contenders crack the Top 15

Modern tennis was born on the grass courts of England, but when it comes to today's game, the turf remains its own unique challenge on both the Hologic WTA Tour and ATP Tour. 

For some, the low-bouncing surface can drive a player to tears. World No.7 Jasmine Paolini, who won a WTA 1000 tournament on hard courts and made the Roland Garros final on clay last month, said playing on grass makes her feel like an amateur.

"Sometimes you feel like you are very bad at playing tennis," Paolini said, laughing. "You serve and you get a winner return. You return and you get a winner back from the opponent. 

"I remember some years I was almost crying every day, and if I wasn't crying I was very sad."

World No.1 Iga Swiatek, who looked nigh invincible during the clay season, constantly jokes about her grass-court frustration. And that's coming from someone who actually won the junior title a few years ago. Grass is the only surface on which she has yet to even reach a final. She has yet to make it past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

"If I would have more time to play on grass, I'm pretty sure that I would be able to play better and better," Swiatek said last year. "But if you play well in Roland Garros, you have only like one week of practice and one week of tournament, then you go on Wimbledon."

But if you love the grass, it will love you back. Two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur seems to move quicker and play more decisively when the tour turns to grass. Flat-hitting baseliners with effective serves, like Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka, flourish. Players with deft drop shots and cutting slices, like reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, can disarm even the best on-court arsenals.

"I enjoy playing on this surface, and that does really help," said two-time Nottingham champion Katie Boulter. "It helps you in the big moments, because it kind of relaxes you. 

So when the tour turns to the grass, who are the players primed to excel? That's where the WTA Insider Grass-Court Power Rankings come in.

These rankings are based on an empirical formula that isolates a player's success rate on grass. To measure a player's recent aptitude on the surface, the Insider team applied the following formula:

• 100% of points earned on grass in 2024
• 100% of points earned on grass in 2023
• 75% of points earned on grass in 2022
• 50% of points earned on grass in 2021
• 25% of points earned on grass in 2019

The resulting sum accounts for a player's "Grass Index."

As there are no WTA 1000 events held on grass, points earned at tour events were doubled to give more proportional weight to success at non-Grand Slam events. 

Heading into Wimbledon, here are the Top 15 grass-court players on the Hologic WTA Tour based on their Grass Index. This week's results in Eastbourne and Bad Homburg have been added. 

1. Ons Jabeur (TUN): 3,101.5 points
PIF WTA Rankings: No.10
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.28
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.10
Best grass results: Two-time Wimbledon finalist (2022, 2023), Berlin champion (2022), Birmingham champion (2021)

2. Daria Kasatkina: 2,420 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.12
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.8
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.14
Best grass results: 2024 Eastbourne champion, 2023 Eastbourne finalist, 2021 Birmingham finalist, 2018 Wimbledon quarterfinalist

3. Marketa Vondrousova (CZE): 2,374.5 points
PIF WTA Rankings: No.6
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.20
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.6
Best grass results: Reigning Wimbledon champion

4. Ekaterina Alexandrova: 2,326.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.22
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.19
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.22
Best grass results: Two-time 's-Hertogenbosch champion (2022, 2023), Wimbledon Round of 16 (2023)

5. Jelena Ostapenko (LAT): 2,099.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.14
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.9
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.13
Best grass results: 2023 Birmingham champion, 2021 Eastbourne champion, 2022 Eastbourne finalist, 2018 Wimbledon semifinalist

6. Madison Keys (USA): 2,080 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.13
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.14
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.12
Best grass results: Two-time Eastbourne champion (2023, 2014), 2016 Birmingham champion, 2024 Eastbourne semifinalist, Two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist (2023, 2015)

7. Donna Vekic (CRO): 2,049 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.37
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.25
Projected Wimbledon seeding: Unseeded
Best grass results: 2024 Bad Homburg finalist, 2023 Berlin finalist, 2017 Nottingham champion, 2019 Nottingham finalist, 2013 Birmingham finalist, 2018 Wimbledon Round of 16

8. Aryna Sabalenka: 1,922 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.3
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.2
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.3
Best grass results: Two-time Wimbledon semifinalist (2023, 2021), 2022 Libema Open finalist, 2018 Eastbourne finalist

9. Jessica Pegula (USA): 1,878.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.5
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.16
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.5
Best grass results: Reigning Berlin champion, 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist

10. Katie Boulter (GBR): 1,751.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.29
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.22
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.32
Best grass results: Two-time Nottingham champion (2024, 2023)

11. Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA): 1,606.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.20
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.33
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.20
Best grass results: 2023 Wimbledon Round of 16, 2022 Birmingham champion, 2022 Nottingham champion

12. Liudmila Samsonova: 1,597.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.15
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.31
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.15
Best grass results: 2024 's-Hertogenbosch champion, 2021 Berlin champion, 2021 Wimbledon Round of 16

13. Karolina Pliskova (CZE): 1,576 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.46
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.32
Projected Wimbledon seeding: Unseeded
Best grass results: 2021 Wimbledon finalist, two-time Eastbourne champion (2019, 2017), 2016 Nottingham champion, 2024 Nottingham finalist, 2016 Eastbourne finalist, 2015 Birmingham finalist

14. Veronika Kudermetova: 1,441 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.38
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.48
Projected Wimbledon seeding: Unseeded
Best grass results: 2023 's-Hertogenbosch finalist

15. Coco Gauff (USA): 1,402.5 points
PIF WTA Ranking: No.2
PIF Race to the WTA Finals: No.4
Projected Wimbledon seeding: No.2
Best grass results: Wimbledon Round of 16 (2021, 2019), 2024 and 2022 Berlin semifinalist, 2023 Eastbourne semifinalist