Reigning Aryna Sabalenka Wins Back-to-Back WTA Top Player Honors.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka has been selected the Women's Tennis Association player of the year for a second straight season.
The twenty-seven-year-old won four titles – the most on tour – including successfully defending the US Open this past September versus Amanda Anisimova to secure her fourth career Grand Slam singles triumph.
A Year of Consistency
Across the season, Sabalenka played in a circuit-leading nine championship matches, with losses coming against Madison Keys in the Australian Open final at the start of the year 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 as the clay season progressed. She spent the entire year as the world number one, ending 2025 atop the rankings for a second straight year.
In July, she became the first athlete to exceed 12,000 WTA ranking points since Serena Williams did so nearly a decade ago.
Record-Breaking Numbers
Sabalenka finished the season with a sixty-three to twelve match record, and collected a historic £11m in prize money.
She garnered nearly eighty percent of the votes cast by global tennis journalists.
On 28 December, she is set to play 2022 Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios in a high-profile mixed-gender exhibition match in a bid to "raise women's tennis to a higher level".
Other WTA Award Honorees
- Comeback Player of the Year: Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, twenty-eight, received the award after taking a extended hiatus after the arrival of her daughter and making her comeback to the sport at the start of this year.
- Rookie of the Year: Canadian 19-year-old Victoria Mboko received 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 earned the title after winning their second Grand Slam title together.
- Most Improved Player of the Year: Amanda Anisimova was named after reaching five finals.
Last week, Carlos Alcaraz secured three awards in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Awards, which included the season-ending top rank award, while Jannik Sinner was chosen as fans' favourite for a third time.
