The New Faces of Women's Tennis

For the upstarts of women's tennis, it was a moment that said: "We have arrived."

At the French Open earlier this month, Serena Williams was clobbered. Li Na, the Australian Open champion, was bounced in the first round. And Maria Sharapova needed three of the gutsiest performances of her career to turn back three rising stars on the way to winning the title.

Though Sharapova won in Paris against 22-year-old Romanian Simona Halep, Halep and a group of young women born in the 1990s announced their presence. Now, with Wimbledon set to begin Monday, women's tennis has finally found its future. This generation is the one women's tennis fans have been waiting for, the one that can carry the sport after the last of the legends born in the 1980s—Serena and Venus Williams and Sharapova—retire.

The new kids are big hitters and fast movers. They're brash. They don't cower when facing past champions. They're relentless. They're creative and play to the crowd. And they don't just bash tennis balls; they hit drop shots and volleys and slices and sharp angles. They're so fun to watch that the final between Halep and Sharapova, which lasted a little over three hours, felt like it ended too soon.

"They're young, they're hungry and they're full of potential," said Tracy Austin, the former No. 1 player.

Coming up alongside Halep is Eugenie Bouchard, a 20-year-old Canadian who reached the semifinals at both the French Open and the Australian Open in January. Tennis experts rave about her attacking style, poise and instincts.

"I definitely feel like I can play with the best girls in the game," Bouchard said.

Garbiñe Muguruza, a 20-year-old of Spanish and Venezuelan descent, handed Serena Williams the most lopsided defeat of her Grand Slam career in the second round of the French Open, 6-2, 6-2.

"I like to play on big courts, center courts, against amazing players," Muguruza said.

Halep, who played in her first Grand Slam final in Paris, has climbed to third in the world rankings from 53rd at the end of 2011. Her match against Sharapova was the first French Open final to last three sets since 2001.

"She pushed me to the limit," Sharapova said.

Other up-and-comers include 21-year-old American Sloane Stephens; Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic (21); last year's junior Wimbledon champion, 17-year-old Belinda Bencic; Anna Schmiedlova (19), who beat Venus Williams at the French Open; Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (19); and Taylor Townsend, an 18-year-old American who was given a wild card into Wimbledon on the strength of her two victories at the French Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of her career. Townsend combines the power game of the present with the touch volleys of the past.

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