Sabalenka finishes the year as number one

Aryna Sabalenka has officially closed out 2025 as the No. 1 player in women’s tennis, topping the WTA rankings with a commanding lead of nearly 2,500 points over Poland’s Iga Swiatek.

Despite falling short in the WTA Finals title match against Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, Sabalenka remains firmly in first place with 10,870 points, ahead of Swiatek (8,395) and American star Coco Gauff (6,763).

Anisimova breaks into the top 10

The top three remain unchanged from last year, but the biggest shake-up comes from Amanda Anisimova, who skyrocketed from No. 36 in 2024 to No. 4 with 6,287 points—a career-best finish.

Meanwhile, Elena Rybakina, fresh off her WTA Finals victory in Riyadh, climbs to No. 5 with 5,850 points, overtaking Jessica Pegula (5,583) American Madison Keys (4,335), Italian Jasmine Paolini (4,325) and Russians Mirra Andreeva (4,319) and Ekaterina Alexandrova (3,375) complete the top 10 after the Riyadh tournament, while Belinda Bencic (3,168) is left just short after a year of great progress, as after returning from her pregnancy in November 2024 she was outside the top 300.

Just outside the top 10 is Belinda Bencic, who made a remarkable comeback after maternity leave in late 2024. She finishes the year with 3,168 points, having started the season ranked outside the top 300.

A year at the summit

Sabalenka has spent 55 consecutive weeks occupying top spot and is the 10th player in WTA history to spend a full year as the world No 1, joining tennis icons such as Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis in the record books.

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