The 2016 WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organised by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2016 tennis season. The 2016 WTA Tour calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments (supervised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the WTA Premier tournaments (Premier Mandatory, Premier 5, and regular Premier), the WTA International tournaments, the Fed Cup (organized by the ITF), the year-end championships (the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Elite Trophy). Also included in the 2016 calendar is the Summer Olympic Games and Hopman Cup, which were organized by the ITF and did not distribute ranking points.
This is the complete schedule of events on the 2016 calendar, with player progression documented from the quarterfinals stage.
Note: In the Champions and Runners-up columns, a tournament's results in doubles are also included.
These 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 2016 WTA Tour: the Grand Slam tournaments, the tennis event at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympic Games, the year-end championships (the WTA Tour Championships and the Tournament of Champions), the WTA Premier tournaments (Premier Mandatory, Premier 5, and regular Premier), and the WTA International tournaments. The players/nations are sorted by: 1) total number of titles (a doubles title won by two players representing the same nation counts as only one win for the nation); 2) cumulated importance of those titles (one Grand Slam win equalling two Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 wins, one year-end championships win equalling one-and-a-half Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 win, one Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 win equalling two Premier wins, one Olympic win equalling one-and-a-half Premier win, one Premier win equalling two International wins); 3) a singles > doubles > mixed doubles hierarchy; 4) alphabetical order (by family names for players).
The following players won their first main circuit title in singles, doubles, or mixed doubles:
The following players defended a main circuit title in singles, doubles, or mixed doubles:
The following players entered the top 10 for the first time in their careers:
These are the WTA rankings of the top 20 singles players, doubles players, and the top 10 doubles teams on the WTA Tour, of the 2016 season.
Angelique Kerber topped the 2016 money list and joined Serena Williams as the only two women to ever win over $10,000,000 in a single season. Additionally, Kerber became the 15th WTA player to win $20,000,000 in career earnings. The top-32 players earned over $1,000,000. Bethanie Mattek-Sands won $1,088,600 in doubles tournaments. It was the 3rd consecutive year that a player earned over $1,000,000 in doubles events.
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<nowiki>*</nowiki> Assumes undefeated round robin match record.
Following is a list of notable players (winners of a main tour title, and/or part of the WTA rankings top 100 (singles) or (doubles) for at least one week) who announced their retirement from professional tennis, became inactive (after not playing for more than 52 weeks), or were permanently banned from playing, during the 2016 season: