That’s a wrap.
The WTA Finals is in the books, and with it comes the conclusion of the 2025 season. But we’ll reflect on the last 10 months in the coming days. For now, we’re relishing yet another brilliant week in Riyadh, headlined by Elena Rybakina’s first career WTA Finals title and a second doubles championship for Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.
Beyond the champions, there were some incredible matches, heartfelt moments and wonderful surprises.
Here is the best of the best from the year-end tournament in Riyadh.
The MVP
Who else but Rybakina? Powered by her booming serve, the most lethal on the Hologic WTA Tour this season, the 26-year-old won five straight matches convincingly to win her biggest title since Wimbledon three years ago. Four of the five wins came against players seeded higher than her — the lone exception was Ekaterina Alexandrova, who replaced Madison Keys as an alternate — and her undefeated record in Riyadh earned her $5.235 million in winnings, the largest prize in women’s sports history.
Rybakina dropped just two sets all week and earned impressive wins over World No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the group stage and World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. In that match, she won the second-set tiebreaker 7-0 to claim the Billie Jean King trophy.
The perfect finish to a perfect week.
The Biggest Surprise
Can the MVP also be the biggest surprise? In this case, it unquestionably is.
Rybakina’s stunning title came after one of the great late-season surges in recent memory.
For much of the season it looked as if Mirra Andreeva was going to comfortably snag one of the eight spots in Riyadh, but Rybakina bore down during the Asian swing and rattled off six straight must-win matches — picking up a title in Ningbo along the way — to surpass Andreeva and secure qualification. She was the last player to qualify for Riyadh, punching her ticket just a week before the tournament started.
Technically an underdog in four of her five matches, she looked anything but, and finished her season with 11 straight wins (her walkover in Tokyo notwithstanding).
The Most Heartfelt Moment
Post-match interviews and speeches are difficult in defeat. There’s so much raw emotion there, coupled with disappointment and heartbreak.
After Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani lost the doubles final, Babos delightfully explained how her unlikely partnership with Stefani came to be. She then revealed, with tears in her eyes, the news that this is likely the end of the road for their team.
“I’m very thankful for you and everything we have achieved,” Babos told Stefani during the trophy presentation. “Thank you so much for sharing this amazing moment, and…unfortunately, it looks like we’re not going to continue, but not because we don’t match. It’s because I don’t think I will play a full season next year. Yeah, [Luisa’s] like, ‘How does it feel to say it out loud?’ Well, I’m kind of crying so…
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad to finish without a trophy, but as you said, I collected three of these already, so I’m just very happy to get to another final here.”
She followed that up by showing some more love for her supportive family.
A real moment that showed just how much Stefani and the people in her life mean to her, and how much Babos loves this sport.
The Best Match
This one was a toss up, but I’m going with Sabalenka’s 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals.
Neither player gave an inch in this US Open final rematch, matching each other blow for blow in an incredible display of pace and aggression.
You knew from the start that this would be an epic battle. In the first two games, the power players accumulated 30 total points, including nine deuce points and six break points, over 18 minutes. They needed an hour and 94 points just to get through the first set.
After splitting the first two sets, Sabalenka steadied late in the decider to close it out and advance to the final.
Honorable Mention: In the third installment of this burgeoning new rivalry, Anisimova overcame Swiatek 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 in a winner-take-all match at the end of the group stage. The marathon match lasted 2 hours and 36 minutes. After losing the Wimbledon final 6-0, 6-0 this summer, Anisimova now leads her overall head to head against Swiatek.
The Best Point
Yes, Sabalenka is known for her tremendous power, but she has also remarkable touch and instincts.
This point is a prime example. Serving at 2-all, 0-15 in the deciding third set against Pegula, Sabalenka traded blows with the American and countered a forehand down the line with a backhand flick of the wrist into the middle of the court. Pegula came in and angled her next shot beautifully, but the World No. 1 answered with a running backhand that just caught the line.
Pegula looked in disbelief, though she’s been on the receiving end of those shots from Sabalenka more times than she’d care to remember.
Just Sabalenka doing Sabalenka things. Absurd.
The Best Social Moment
After Sabalenka’s win over Pegula, she tossed a signed ball to an adoring young fan in the first row. She looked at it in awe, jubilantly bopped around in excitement and held it close to her face. A sweet moment, and a memory this child will have for the rest of her life.
The Best Quote
“I do think we have really great matches, memorable matches. I wish I won more of them … even my coaches were saying, they’re like, ‘Whenever you guys play each other, it seems like you guys seem to bring out such a high level in each other.’
“So, I feel like, do I love losing? No. But I feel like, if you asked me in 10 years, like I look back and had all these super memorable matches with her. I think it’s pretty cool. I just wish I won more of them.” – Pegula after her 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 loss to Sabalenka in the group stage
The Best Stat
A few remarkable stats were borne out of this week’s Finals. How about Rybakina becoming the 10th straight first-time champion? (Which speaks to how incredibly hard it is to win this tournament, and the tremendous depth of the tour.) I could also go with Swiatek losing back-to-back matches after winning the first set for the first time in her career.
But instead I’ll go with this one, which perfectly encapsulates the unpredictability of sports, and the painful irony that often comes with it. Sabalenka won 22 tiebreaks this year, setting a single-season record. In the second set on Saturday, not only did she lose the tiebreak, but she was shut out for the first time in her career.