Plenty of players enjoyed moments in the spotlight during the 2025 WTA season. Four different Grand Slam champions. Seven different winners at WTA 1000 events. A player who didn’t win any of those events took the title at the year-end WTA Finals.
Aryna Sabalenka reigned as the No. 1 player in the world from the beginning of the year to the end. Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff added to their collections of major titles. Madison Keys joined the Grand Slam champions club.
Players like Amanda Anisimova made big moves up the rankings. Players like Mirra Andreeva set records for winning at a young age. Players like Lois Boisson proved fairy tale stories can come true.
The 25 most important moments of 2025
Which moments were the 25 most important moments of the 2025 WTA season? Read on to find out!
#25 – Venus sightings
Seven-time major champion Venus Williams won a round at the Washington event. She later pushed No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova to three sets in the first round of the U.S. Open – all at age 45!
#24 – Italy repeats in BJK Cup
Jasmine Paolini won every match she played to help Italy win the Billie Jean King Cup for the second year in a row. Her three-set singles win against Elena Svitolina made the difference in Italy’s 2-1 semifinal win against Ukraine in what proved to be the pivotal match of the event.
#23 – Lessons learned
In perhaps the most impressive turnarounds of the year, Anisimova regrouped from her loss against Swiatek in the Wimbledon final (we’ll read about that later) and beat Swiatek in their next two meetings, in the U.S. Open quarterfinal and at the WTA Finals.
#22 – Quiet rise
Ekaterina Alexandrova won the WTA 500 event in Linz in early February. The victory kick-started a year that saw Alexandrova quietly rise to No. 10 in the world – at age 31!
#21 – Familiar script
It was déjà vu all over again as Naomi Osaka beat Gauff in a surprisingly one-sided match in the U.S. Open round of 16. It was the first U.S. Open meeting between the two since Osaka beat then-15-year-old Gauff in the third round in 2019. The victory was part of a resurgent year for Osaka, who reached the final in Canada and the semifinals at the U.S. Open.
#20 – Mother of a comeback
At this time last year, Belinda Benic had just returned to the tour after giving birth to her daughter. Bencic won two events in 2025 – the WTA 500 events in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo - and also reached the Wimbledon semifinals to climb all the way back to No. 11 in the world.
#19 – She’s got next
Iva Jovic appears poised to be the Next Big Thing after winning the WTA 500 event in Guadalajara in September at age 17. She finished 2025 ranked No. 33 in the world.
#18 – 500 event winners
Sabalenka (Brisbane), Keys (Adelaide), Emma Navarro (Merida), Jessica Pegula (Charleston and Bad Homburg), Jelena Ostapenko (Stuttgart), Elena Rybakina (Strasbourg and Ningbo), Tatjana Maria (Queen’s), Marketa Vondrousova (Berlin), Leylah Fernandez (Washington), Diana Shnaider (Monterrey) and Swiatek (Seoul) also won WTA 500-level titles in 2025.
Winners at the WTA 1000s
#17 – Woohoo for Coco in Wuhan
On her last opportunity, Gauff won a WTA 1000 event in 2025. Gauff claimed the final WTA 1000 event of the season, in early October in Wuhan. Gauff won her ninth consecutive hard-court final.
#16 – Swiatek’s sizzling summer
Swiatek capped a dominant summer stretch that included the Wimbledon title by winning the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati for the first time in her career. Swiatek solidified her spot at No. 2 in the rankings after she had fallen as low as No. 8 heading into the grass-court season.
#15 – Hometown heroine
A local favorite reigned in Rome. Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian woman in 40 years to win the Italian Open with her victory at the WTA 1000 event in May.
#14 – Canada’s own Cinderella
Nineteen-year-old Victoria Mboko, who started the Canadian Open ranked 85th in the world, made a stunning run to the title in her home country’s WTA 1000 event. She showed it was not a fluke by winning the Hong Kong Open in November to rise to No. 18 in the world.
#13 – Best in Beijing
Anisimova capped a stellar second half of 2025 with the title at the China Open. Anisimova won her second WTA 1000 event of the year.
#12 – Mirra, Mirra, on the rise
Andreeva followed up her historic win in Dubai (coming up at #9) by winning Indian Wells for her second WTA 1000 crown in a row. Andreeva took out Sabalenka in a three-set final.
#11 – Sabalenka breaks through
Heading into the WTA 1000 event in Miami, Sabalenka had a long list of strong performances in 2025, but just one championship trophy to show for it. That changed in south Florida, where Sabalenka capped a strong spring hard-court season with a title …
#10 – Setting the tone for spring
… and she carried the momentum into the spring. Sabalenka won the first WTA 1000 event of the clay-court season, beating Gauff in Madrid in a preview of the French Open final.
#9 – Youth served in Dubai
At 17 years and 299 days, Andreeva became the youngest player to win a WTA 1000 title when she won the event in Dubai.
#8 – A sign of things to come
Anisimova served notice that she would be a force to be reckoned with in 2025 by winning the February event in Qatar for her first WTA 1000 title. Anisimova went on to reach two major finals and finish the year ranked No. 4 in the world.
Big moments at the big events
#7 – A night to remember
Fans who secured tickets to the U.S. Open women’s semifinals got their money’s worth with two high-quality three-setters. Sabalenka held off Pegula despite the latter losing only four points on her serve in the last set. Anisimova then rallied past a resurgent Osaka to reach her second consecutive major final.
#6 – French fairy tale
Lois Boisson was ranked No. 361 entering the French Open and only got into the main draw of her home nation’s Grand Slam as a wild card. She proceeded to win her way into the hearts of France by reaching the semifinals at Roland Garros in her first major event.
#5 – Rybakina rules in Riyadh
This is #5 for a reason. Rybakina earned more than $5 million and rose to No. 5 in the world by winning the season-ending WTA Finals. Rybakina beat Sabalenka 7-0 in a match-clinching second-set tiebreaker in the tournament final. Sabalenka had won a record 22 tiebreaks during the 2025 season. Rybakina was the very last player to clinch a spot in the season-ending event.
#4 – U.S. Open #2 for the world #1
After near-misses in the first three majors of the year, Sabalenka affirmed her status as the world’s best player by winning the U.S. Open. Sabalenka overcame a determined performance from Anisimova in the final to complete a repeat title run in New York.
#3 – Coco conquers Paris
Gauff rallied past Sabalenka in three sets to earn her first French Open title. Sabalenka’s 70 unforced errors aided Gauff’s cause (and prevented us from ranking this match any higher than No. 3).
#2 – Madison’s magic in Melbourne
Keys started the Grand Slam season with a memorable run to her maiden major title. Keys beat No. 2 Swiatek – saving a match point in the process - and No. 1 Sabalenka in back-to-back three-set thrillers to win the Australian Open. Keys became the first player in 20 years to beat the top two seeds en route to an Australian title.
#1 – And the most important event of 2025 was …
If we had to pick a match from 2025 that will be remembered 50 years from now, we have to pick Swiatek’s 6-0, 6-0 demolition of a nervous Anisimova in the Wimbledon final.
It was the first 6-0, 6-0 scoreline in a major final since Steffi Graf double-bageled Natasha Zvereva in the 1988 French final. Swiatek won her first Wimbledon, her sixth major, and now owns a Grand Slam title on all three surfaces.