Aryna Sabalenka has been part of some huge matches throughout the 2025 season.
Sabalenka lost in both the Australian Open and Roland Garros finals, being beaten by Madison Keys and Coco Gauff, respectively.
The world number one made sure that she would not end her season without a major, as Sabalenka beat Amanda Anisimova to win the US Open for a second consecutive year.
Sabalenka is now a four-time Grand Slam champion, and she has now named her favourite match of the year that may surprise some people.
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty ImagesAryna Sabalenka names her Roland Garros semifinal as her favourite match in 2025
Prior to the US Open even getting underway, Sabalenka was asked to name her favourite match in 2025 when speaking to Tennis Channel.
Sabalenka had already won the Madrid Open, the Miami Open and the Brisbane International this year, but she actually picked a match where she did not win a title.
That match was in the semifinals of Roland Garros, where Sabalenka beat rival Iga Swiatek to end her 26-match winning streak at the clay court major, which is what the Belarusian has suggested made it such a special win for her.
“Defeating Iga in the semis at Roland Garros, at the tournament she won three times in a row but four times overall,” explained Sabalenka. “I would rate this number one.
“She is the Queen of Clay and winning that match gave me so much confidence, even though I lost in the finals after that.”
While this win was the favourite match for Sabalenka, she then lost to Gauff in the Roland Garros final, where she received a lot of backlash for her post-match comments.
What are Aryna Sabalenka’s other favourite matches in 2025?
This was not the only match that Sabalenka picked as one of her favourites, as she was asked to name her top five from a selection of pictures.
Sabalenka placed her Australian Open quarterfinal victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in fifth, with her Miami Open quarterfinal win over Qinwen Zheng in fourth.
Getting to the podium places, Sabalenka then picked her Wimbledon quarterfinal victory over Laura Siegemund in third.
Sabalenka admitted that she did not actually think she played a very high level, but was pleased with her mental fortitude.
“Even though the level wasn’t the best level I could play, but the amount of mental strength I had to pull out to win that match was incredible and I just rate it as number three, because it was a very tricky match,” said Sabalenka. “Level wise maybe not the best, but once again the mental strength I had to show was insane.”
Although Sabalenka did not enjoy Roland Garros final against Gauff, she selected her Madrid Open final win over the American to go in second.
“It was a great level from me, tactically and mentally, and I won the tournament so got to go with this one,” said Sabalenka.
While it cannot be confirmed, it seems likely that Sabalenka would now put her US Open final victory on this list as well.
Sabalenka is not the only person to have done this, with fellow US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz also naming his best matches from the year.