Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka Wins Back-to-Back WTA Player of the Year Accolades.
The top-ranked player Aryna Sabalenka has been chosen the Women's Tennis Association top performer of the year for a second successive season.
The 27-year-old secured four tournament victories – the highest tally on the circuit – which included successfully defending the US Open this past September versus Amanda Anisimova to earn her fourth career Grand Slam singles title.
A Season of Dominance
Throughout the year, Sabalenka competed in a circuit-leading nine championship matches, with losses coming to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final in January and Coco Gauff in the French Open final.
The star player also claimed victory at the Brisbane International early in the season, the Miami Open during the spring, and the Madrid Open as the clay season progressed. She remained the whole season as the world number one, ending 2025 on top of the rankings for a second straight year.
In July, she achieved the status of being the first athlete to exceed 12,000 WTA ranking points after Serena Williams did so nearly a decade ago.
Record-Breaking Achievements
Sabalenka concluded the competitive year with a sixty-three to twelve win-loss record, and picked up a historic £11m in prize money.
She received almost eighty percent of the votes cast by international tennis media.
On 28 December, she is set to play 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios in a Battle of the Sexes-style exhibition match in a bid to "raise women's tennis to a new level".
Other WTA Award Honorees
- Comeback Player of the Year: Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, twenty-eight, received the award after taking a 13-month break after the arrival of her first child and making her comeback to the sport at the start of this year.
- Rookie of the Year: Canadian 19-year-old Victoria Mboko was honored with the award after beginning the season positioned beyond the world's top 300 and rising to the eighteenth spot.
- Partnership of the Year: Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend were selected after winning their second Grand Slam title as a pair.
- Most Improved Player of the Year: Amanda Anisimova was named after advancing to five finals.
Last week, Carlos Alcaraz took home three awards in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Awards, including the year-end number one award, while Jannik Sinner was chosen as the fan favorite for a third time.
