Takeaways: Milestones and feel-good stories from this year's grass season

Three weeks, six tournaments, and now we are at Wimbledon. From match-point saving heroics to feel-good stories of milestones and redemption, the Hologic WTA Tour's grass season packed a lot of storylines into a short time frame. 

First, a recap of the top-line singles results:

WTA 500s

Berlin: Jessica Pegula d. Anna Kalinskaya
Semifinalists: Coco Gauff, Victoria Azarenka

Eastbourne: Daria Kasatkina d. Leylah Fernandez
Semifinalists: Madison Keys, Jasmine Paolini

Bad Homburg: Diana Shnaider d. Donna Vekic
Semifinalists: Emma Navarro, Viktoriya Tomova

WTA 250s

's-Hertogenbosch: Liudmila Samsonova d. Bianca Andreescu
Semifinalists: Ekaterina Alexandrova, Dalma Galfi

Nottingham: Katie Boulter d. Karolina Pliskova
Semifinalists: Emma Raducanu, Diane Parry

Birmingham: Yulia Putintseva d. Ajla Tomljanovic
Semifinalists: Anastasia Potapova, Elisabetta Cocciaretto

Here's a look back at the key takeaways from the grass season heading into The Championships:

Grass milestones

This year's grass season minted four first-time grass-court champions. World No.5 Pegula, No.14 Kasatkina and No.34 Putintseva captured their first titles of the 2024 season by breaking new ground on the turf. In Bad Homburg, Diana Shnaider continued her breakout season, capturing her first WTA 500 title and second of the season overall. 

By winning Eastbourne, Kasatkina became the fifth player in the current Top 20 to win titles on each surface. She previously won five titles on hard courts and one on clay. With her run in Berlin, Pegula has made finals on all three surfaces. All four of her previous titles came on hard court, along with a final at Madrid 2022.

Kalinskaya and Fernandez also crossed new career milestones on grass. Kalinskaya, who has shot up the rankings this season after making the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Champions and posting career-best results at the Grand Slams, made her first grass-court final in Berlin. Fernandez built off a quarterfinal finish in Birmingham to end Madison Keys' title defense in Eastbourne and make her first grass final as well. 

Lastly, coming off her run to the Roland Garros final, World No.7 Jasmine Paolini secured her first tour-level main-draw grass-court win en route to the semifinals at Eastbourne. 

Resurgent performances

Pegula and Andreescu returned from their injury breaks and asserted themselves quickly. After being out of the game for 10 months, Andreescu made the final in 's-Hertogenbosch. It was just the second tournament of her comeback, and she won one of the matches of the grass season, a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) victory over a very good Naomi Osaka in the second round.

Pegula did one better. She skipped the European clay season with a rib injury and returned on grass. Berlin was just her second tournament. In a wild final, she became the second player this season to save match points in the final and win.

The 2021 US Open finalists also impressed. Raducanu skipped the bulk of the clay season and returned to make the semifinals in Nottingham and secure the first Top 10 win of her career by defeating Pegula in Eastbourne. Fernandez prepared for the grass season by practicing on a lightning-quick indoor hard court and it showed. She was hugging the baseline well en route to the Birmingham quarterfinals and Eastbourne final. 

Injury concerns

World No.3 Sabalenka, a two-time semifinalist at Wimbledon, picked up a right shoulder injury in Berlin. She retired against Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals. It was the first mid-match retirement of her career, and she told reporters at Wimbledon that she's still not 100 percent.

Reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova looked fantastic in Berlin until she took a fall at 5-1 up in her second-round match. She subsequently retired with a right hip injury.

2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and two-time finalist Jabeur were forced to retire in Berlin due to illness. But they've been all smiles and practicing hard at Aorangi this past week. 

What does it all mean for Wimbledon? 

The challenge for these champions now turns to maintaining their momentum at Wimbledon, which has proven difficult for all swaths of grass-court winners in the past. Since 1990, the Wimbledon final has featured two reigning grass-court champions just once. That came in 1990, when Zina Garrison won Birmingham and finished runner-up to Martina Navratilova, who won Eastbourne the week before. 

Since then, there have been just six instances of players making the final off a grass-court event and going on to make the Wimbledon final. Of those runs, a player went on to win Wimbledon twice

• 2022: Ons Jabeur won Berlin and finished runner-up at Wimbledon
• 2011: Petra Kvitova finished runner-up at Eastbourne and won her first Wimbledon title
• 2006: Justine Henin won Eastbourne and finished runner-up at Wimbledon
• 2004: Maria Sharapova won Birmingham and Wimbledon
• 2001: Henin won 's-Hertogenbosch and finished runner-up at Wimbledon
• 1998: Jana Novotna won Eastbourne and won Wimbledon