Aryna Sabalenka won her second consecutive WTA Tour Player of the Year award on Monday, getting nearly 80% of the vote from a media panel after winning the U.S. Open, reaching the finals of two other Grand Slam tournaments and closing the season at No. 1 in the rankings.
Sabalenka joined Serena Williams and Iga Swiatek as back-to-back winners of the honor over the past 25 years.
Sabalenka, a 27-year-old from Belarus, led women's tennis in match victories (going 63-12), titles (four) and finals reached (nine) in 2025 and set a tour record by earning $15 million in prize money. She spent the entire year at No. 1.
At the majors, Sabalenka was the runner-up to Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January and to Coco Gauff at the French Open in June, made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon in July before losing to Amanda Anisimova and collected her fourth career Grand Slam singles trophy with a successful title defense at the U.S. Open in September, defeating Anisimova in the final.
Anisimova was selected as Most Improved Player after making it to her first two Grand Slam finals at the All England Club — where she was the runner-up to Swiatek — and Flushing Meadows. She reached three other finals, including claiming WTA 1000 titles in Doha and Beijing.
The 24-year-old from the United States ended 2024 at No. 36 in the rankings and, after making her top-10 debut, rose all the way to No. 4 at the end of this season. Anisimova also was nominated as Player of the Year.
This season capped quite a climb for Anisimova, who took time off in 2023, saying she had been " struggling with my mental health " for nearly a year.
Other award recipients Monday included Vicky Mboko as Newcomer of the Year, Belinda Bencic as Comeback Player of the Year, and Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend as Doubles Team of the Year.
Mboko, a 19-year-old from Canada, lifted her ranking from outside the top 300 to inside the top 20 with a season that included a WTA 1000 trophy in Montreal by beating four Grand Slam singles champions.
Bencic was away from the tour for more than a year while having her first child, then won two titles in 2025 and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time — her first appearance in the final four of a major since 2019.
Siniakova and Townsend won the Australian Open and were the runners-up at the U.S. Open.
___
Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
