Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka Wins Back-to-Back WTA Player of the Year Honors.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka has been voted the Women's Tennis Association player of the year for a second straight season.
The twenty-seven-year-old secured four tournament victories – the highest tally on the circuit – including retaining the US Open this past September against Amanda Anisimova to claim her fourth Grand Slam singles triumph.
A Year of Consistency
Throughout the year, Sabalenka competed in a tour-best nine finals, 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 in January, the Miami Open in March, and the Madrid Open in May. She remained the entire year as the world number one, ending 2025 atop the rankings for a second successive year.
This past summer, she achieved the status of being the first player to exceed 12,000 WTA ranking points after Serena Williams in 2015.
Record-Breaking Achievements
Sabalenka ended the competitive year with a sixty-three to twelve match record, and picked up a historic eleven million pounds in prize money.
She garnered nearly eighty percent of the votes submitted by global tennis journalists.
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 "help bring women's tennis to a higher level".
Other WTA Award Recipients
- Comeback Player of the Year: Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, twenty-eight, was voted after taking a extended hiatus after the birth of her daughter and making her comeback to the sport at the start of this year.
- Fresh Face of the Year: Canadian 19-year-old Victoria Mboko picked up the award after beginning 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 voted after capturing their second Grand Slam title together.
- Biggest Leap of the Year: Amanda Anisimova was named after advancing to five championship matches.
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 voted fans' favourite for a third consecutive time.
