Elena Rybakina won the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals title, defeating world number one Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets. The match, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, saw Rybakina extend her winning streak to 11 matches. This includes 5 successive wins at the 2025 WTA Finals. Interestingly, this was her maiden WTA Finals honour. She won the final with a score of 6-3, 7-6 (0), earning $5.235 million for her victory.
Rybakina powers past Sabalenka
The final match of the WTA Finals 2025 lasted 1 hour and 47 minutes, with Rybakina hitting an impressive 13 aces. She also converted one of her six break-point chances, which turned out to be the only break of the night. Sabalenka had five break-point opportunities but couldn’t take advantage of any. “She played incredible,” said Sabalenka after the match. “I feel like I did my best today.”
Records made by Rybakina
Rybakina’s victory was deemed historic as she became the first player from Kazakhstan and any Asian country to win the WTA Finals. Meanwhile, she is also only the second player after Tracy Austin (1979-80) to beat a world number one in consecutive WTA Finals appearances.
As per Opta, Rybakina became the first player to defeat both Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek at multiple WTA-level events, after previously achieving the feat en route to the title at Indian Wells in 2023. Rybakina claimed a tiebreak to love for just the second time in her career at WTA level. Prior to this, Rybakina won 6-4, 7-6(0) against Elina Avanesyan in Rome (R64) in 2022.
What about Sabalenka?
Meanwhile, Sabalenka ended her season with a staggering four titles and 63 match-wins, including a US Open title and two WTA 1000 trophies. As per Opta, since 1990, Sabalenka (2025) became the fifth player to hold the WTA No. 1 ranking for an entire calendar year after Steffi Graf (1990, 1994), Monica Seles (1992), Serena Williams (2014-15) and Ashleigh Barty (2020-21). She spent 52 weeks as world number one in the WTA Rankings this year.
Djokovic wins his 101st career title with Musetti scalp
Novak Djokovic claimed his 101st men’s singles career tour-level title after winning the Hellenic Championship in Athens. The number 1 seed beat number two seed Lorenzo Musetti in three sets. Djokovic won a thrilling three-set contest, winning the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in Athens.
This was the Serbian maestro’s 72nd tour-level title on hard courts. Djokovic steered clear of former Swiss ace Roger Federer for the most tour-level title on hard courts in the Open Era. Meanwhile, the Serb also became the oldest ATP champion at 38 years and 5 months.
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