The WTA honours the best players, tournaments and coach of the year, as well as athletes who have made an exceptional contribution to the Tour away from the court with its WTA Tour Awards, announced this week.<\/p>\n
Anisimova was the only player this season to be nominated in two categories, both as Most Improved Player and also Player of the Year, which reflects her remarkable results in 2025.<\/p>\n
The American reached a total of 5 finals, winning the first WTA 1000 titles of her career at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha and the China Open in Beijing, in addition to reaching her first Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.<\/p>\n
Anisimova also reached the title match at the WTA 500 HSBC Championships at London\u2019s Queen\u2019s Club, made her Top 10 debut in July and qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time to cap off a memorable season.<\/p>\n
Bencic stepped away from the sport in September 2023 to give birth to a baby girl, Bella, who arrived in April 2024, and returned to the WTA Tour at the United Cup at the beginning of the year, gaining momentum with a strong round-of-16 run at the Australian Open, which matched her career-best result in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
It was at the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, though, where the Swiss cemented her come-back status, defeating World No 5 Elena Rybakina en route to lifting the title.<\/p>\n
Bencic went on to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time, and ended the season winning her 10th career title at the WTA 500 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
The Newcomer of the Year, 19-year old Victoria Mboko, was 2025\u2019s break-out star, starting the season ranked outside the Top 300 before soaring to No 18 by the year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
The Canadian\u2019s incredible campaign began with her Tour debut at the WTA 1000 Miami Open presented by Ita\u00fa, ahead of contesting her first Grand Slams at Roland Garros, where she reached the 3rd-round, and Wimbledon, before her fairy-tale title run on home soil at the WTA 1000 National Bank Open presented by Rogers.<\/p>\n
Her success in Montreal broke a string of records, including becoming the 2nd youngest woman in the Open Era to defeat 4 singles Grand Slam champions at the same tournament.<\/p>\n
Mboko closed out the year with more silverware at the WTA 250 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open, rounding out a season to remember.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Rome semi-finals was named as the Match of the Year, in which Coco Gauff defeated Zheng Qinwen in a 3rd set breaker after a 3 hour 22 minute battle, a rematch of their epic 2024 WTA Finals title match<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Tullio M. Puglia\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Rome semi-finals was named as the Match of the Year, in which Coco Gauff defeated Zheng Qinwen, 7-6(3) 4-6 7-6(4), in a rematch of their epic 2024 WTA Finals title match.<\/p>\n
Like in that encounter in Riyadh, this one came down to a tense tiebreak, after Gauff had trailed by a break in the deciding 3rd set, before coming back to win and become the first American in 9 years to reach the Rome final.<\/p>\n
This marathon lasted 3 hours and 22 minutes, and the last set took 80 minutes alone.<\/p>\n
In the third-set tiebreak, Zheng took the first 2 points to go up a mini break, but Gauff won 7 of the next 9 to secure the victory, the match ending after midnight, in what was the longest of the 2-time Grand Slam champion\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
Zheng was named Singles Fan Favourite of the Year, despite the 23-year-old Chinese\u2019s season being cut short due to injury, but that didn\u2019t dampen fans\u2019 enthusiasm and support for her throughout 2025, both on court and off.<\/p>\n
A fan favourite no matter where in the world she is playing, Zheng\u2019s best work came in Rome, where she reached the semi-finals (as seen above), and Roland Garros, where she reached the quarter-finals for the 1st time.<\/p>\n
She underwent elbow surgery after Wimbledon, and was side-lined for more than 2 months, but did come back briefly to play a pair of matches in Beijing in September, beating Emiliana Arango in her 1st match, to the great delight of the hometown fans, but was forced to retire in the 3rd set against Linda Noskova in the next one.<\/p>\n
Jasmine Paolini is the Doubles Fan Favourite of the Year, the Italian\u2019s popularity in Italy, as well as around the world, unquestioned, as she delivered fans another year of memories and thrills in 2025.<\/p>\n
Most notable was her doubles title at Roland Garros, her 1st career major, alongside countrywoman and pal Sara Errani.<\/p>\n
A close 2nd was her title on home soil in Rome, again with Errani. Paolini also won the singles title, becoming the first Italian women\u2019s champion since Raffaella Reggi in 1985.<\/p>\n
The Italian pair also added titles in Doha and Beijing, and Paolini led Italy to successfully defend of its Billie Jean King Cup title.<\/p>\n
She won 80 matches across singles and doubles, all while giving max effort and always with a smile on her face.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WTA 1000 Moment of the Year was Alexandra Eala’s semi-final run in Miami that was historic as she became the first Filipina to reach a WTA Tour semi-final, and she also became the first Filipina to break into the Top 100 of the PIF WTA Rankings.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Marcio Machado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
WTA 1000 Moment of the Year \u2013 Alexandra Eala\u2019s semi-final run in Miami<\/p>\n
Coming into the Miami Open ranked 140th in the world, the then-19-year old defeated 3 Grand Slam champions \u2013 Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek \u2013 to reach the final 4 of the WTA 1000 tournament.<\/p>\n
The win over Swiatek was especially stunning, as it was only the 3rd time that the 4-time French Open champion had lost to a player outside the Top 100 in a main draw, and the first time in 4 years.<\/p>\n
The magical run wasn\u2019t just impressive, it was historic. Eala became the first Filipina to reach a WTA Tour semi-final, and she also became the first Filipina to break into the Top 100 of the PIF WTA Rankings.<\/p>\n
Later in the season she became the first Filipina to win a WTA Tour title, the WTA 125 in Guadalajara, and the first to enter the Top 50.<\/p>\n
WTA 500 Moment of the Year \u2013 Venus Williams\u2019 winning return in DC.<\/p>\n
The 7-time Grand Slam singles champion returned to the tour after 16 months away, and promptly did what she had always done, win.<\/p>\n
The 45-year old American produced a convincing 6-3 6-4 win over countrywoman and then-World No 35 Peyton Stearns, who was 22 years her junior.<\/p>\n
The 5-time Wimbledon champion became the oldest player to win a tour-level singles match since 47-year-old Martina Navratilova defeated Catalina Castano at Wimbledon in 2004.<\/p>\n
Williams continued her come-back in Cincinnati and New York, with the highlight being a doubles quarter-final run with Leylah Fernandez at the US Open.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WTA 250 Moment of the Year was the epic tiebreak at Eastbourne, which Maya Joint won against Alexandra Eala in the final<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Charlie Crowhurst\/Getty Images for LTA<\/p>\n
WTA 250 Moment of the Year \u2013 The epic tiebreak in Eastbourne<\/p>\n
There is perhaps nothing better in tennis than a hotly-contested, back-and-forth tiebreak with shifting momentum and increasing tension, amplified when that breaker decides a match, especially for the championship.<\/p>\n
That scenario played out in Eastbourne, in the final between Maya Joint and Eala, and it didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n
19-year old Joint saved 4 championship points before edging Eala 12-10 to win the match, 6-4 1-6 7-6(10), and capture her 2nd title of the season.<\/p>\n
Eala led 5-2 in the tiebreak, but the Australian took the next 3 points to level it, and then held a championship point, up 7-6, but a forehand winner from the Filipina saved it.<\/p>\n
Joint later converted her 2nd championship point, and clinched the title with a backhand winner.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Open is the WTA 1000 Tournament of the Year, this year won by Iga Swiatek, who beat Jasmine Paolini in the final<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Dylan Buell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The WTA also announced the winners in the Tournament of the Year category, celebrating and honouring the stand-out performers of the season, and the Cincinnati Open, Credit One Charleston Open and Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open take home the top honours this season.<\/p>\n
The WTA Tournament of the Year Award winners are voted on by the players and recognise the excellence of the staff and organisation, dedicated fans, and wider support to the sport and its athletes.<\/p>\n
WTA 1000 Tournament of the Year \u2013 Cincinnati OpenWTA 500 Tournament of the Year \u2013 Credit One Charleston OpenWTA 250 Tournament of the Year \u2013 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis OpenWTA 1000 Progress Award of the Year \u2013 Cincinnati OpenWTA 500 Progress Award of the Year \u2013 Ningbo OpenWTA 250 Progress Award of the Year \u2013 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis OpenTournament Team of the Year (Americas) \u2013 Cincinnati OpenTournament Team of the Year (APAC) \u2013 China Open (Beijing)Tournament Team of the Year (EMEA) \u2013 Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia (Rome) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WTA honours the best players, tournaments and coach of the year, as well as athletes who have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-88107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}