Top-ranked Sabalenka Secures Back-to-Back WTA Player of the Year Honors.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka has been chosen the Women's Tennis Association top performer of the year for a second consecutive year.
The twenty-seven-year-old secured four tournament victories – the highest tally on the circuit – which included retaining the US Open in September against Amanda Anisimova to earn her fourth Grand Slam singles championship.
A Year of Consistency
Throughout the year, Sabalenka competed in a circuit-leading nine championship matches, with defeats coming to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final in January and Coco Gauff in the French Open final.
The star player also won the Brisbane International in January, the Miami Open during the spring, and the Madrid Open in May. She remained the entire year as the world number one, concluding 2025 atop the rankings for a second successive year.
In July, she became the first athlete to exceed 12,000 WTA ranking points after Serena Williams did so nearly a decade ago.
Record-Breaking Numbers
Sabalenka finished the season with a 63-12 match record, and earned a record £11m in tournament winnings.
She earned nearly eighty percent of the votes cast by international tennis media.
Later this month, she is scheduled to face 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios in a Battle of the Sexes-style exhibition match in a bid to "elevate women's tennis to a new level".
Other WTA Award Recipients
- Comeback Player of the Year: Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, twenty-eight, was voted after taking a extended hiatus following the birth of her daughter and making her comeback to the sport at the start of this year.
- Rookie of the Year: Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko received the award after starting the season positioned outside the world's top 300 and soaring to the eighteenth spot.
- Partnership of the Year: Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend were selected after capturing their second Grand Slam title as a pair.
- Most Improved Player of the Year: Amanda Anisimova was named after making five finals.
Last week, Carlos Alcaraz took home three awards in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Awards, which included the year-end number one award, while Jannik Sinner was chosen as fans' favourite for a third time.
