Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka Wins Back-to-Back WTA Player of the Year Awards.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka has been chosen the Women's Tennis Association top performer of the year for a second straight year.
The twenty-seven-year-old secured four tournament victories – the most on tour – which included retaining the US Open this past September against Amanda Anisimova to secure her fourth career Grand Slam singles title.
A Year of High Performance
Across the season, Sabalenka played in a tour-best nine finals, with defeats coming against Madison Keys in the Australian Open final at the start of the year and Coco Gauff in June's 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 spent 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 in 2015.
Record-Breaking Achievements
Sabalenka ended the competitive year with a 63-12 win-loss record, and earned a historic £11m in tournament winnings.
She received nearly eighty percent of the votes cast by global tennis journalists.
On 28 December, she is scheduled to face 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios in a Battle of the Sexes-style exhibition match with the aim of "help bring women's tennis to a new level".
Additional WTA Award Winners
- Returning Star of the Year: Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, 28, was voted after taking 13-month break following the birth of her daughter and returning to the sport at the start of this year.
- Newcomer of the Year: Canadian 19-year-old Victoria Mboko picked up the award after beginning the season positioned beyond the world's top 300 and soaring to world number 18.
- Doubles Team of the Year: Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend were voted after winning their second career Grand Slam title as a pair.
- Most Improved Player of the Year: Amanda Anisimova received the accolade after reaching 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 voted fans' favourite for a third time.