As the tennis season comes to a close, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka has been voted as the WTA’s Player of the Year award for the very first time in her career following a stellar season on the court.
Sabalenka, who won four world titles in 2024, beat Iga Swiatek to the accolade, with the Pole having won the previous two years.
The Belarusian started the year strongly, retaining her Australian Open title against Zheng Qinwen in January before winning the US Open in September.
Sabalenka finished the season unbeaten in hard-court majors, having pulled out of Wimbledon with a shoulder injury before being beaten by Mirra Andreeva at the French Open.
The loss at Roland Garros was disappointing for the fans with Roland Garros tickets, as they expected Sabalenka to go all the way and bring an epic final.
But that will likely be the case in 2025, as she looks confident to go up next season.
Since January, she has won 18 out of 19 grand slam matches, for a winning percentage of 94.7%.
This is the highest grand slam score over a calendar year since Serena Williams in 2015 among players who have played at least ten matches.
Nine years ago, the American had a 96.2% winning percentage and was very close to achieving the calendar grand slam.
Sabalenka also won the Cincinnati Open in August and the Wuhan Open in October, becoming the first woman to win the Chinese event three times.
She also ended Swiatek’s 11-month reign at the summit of the WTA world rankings in October, finishing the season with 9,416 points to the Pole’s 8,295. She finished the season with a 56-14 win-loss record.
Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini were named the Doubles Team of the Year after lifting WTA 1000 titles firstly on home soil at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and then the China Open in addition to the WTA 500 Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
They reached their first grand slam final together at Roland-Garros before capping off a memorable summer by winning the gold medal in doubles at the Paris Olympics.
Emma Navarro won the Most Improved Player of the Year award, Lulu Sun was named Newcomer of the Year, and Paula Badosa was handed the Comeback Player of the Year.
Sabalenka To Start On Top
The reigning #1 will start her season at her favourite event – the Australian Open. The two-time defending champion tops the official main-draw entry list, and she wants to make it 3 in a row.
Two-time defending champion Sabalenka is bidding to become the first woman to win the Australian Open three years since Martina Hingis in 1997-99. She is one of five former Australian Open winners on the entry list, along with Victoria Azarenka (2012, 2013), Naomi Osaka (2019, 2021), Caroline Wozniacki (2018) and Sofia Kenin (2020).
Auckland entry list features Osaka, Raducanu, and Stephens.
Eight more Grand Slam titlists bring the total to 13: World No.2 and reigning Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, Jelena Ostapenko, Marketa Vondrousova, Emma Raducanu, and Sloane Stephens.
The entire Top 98 in the PIF WTA Rankings of the week commencing Dec. 2 are on the initial entry list. Six players have entered using special rankings: former Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic (No.15), Caty McNally (No.71), Julia Grabher (No.73), Jodie Burrage (No.85), Zheng Saisai (No.89) and Danka Kovinic (No.95).
The last initial direct acceptance is No.98-ranked Nadia Podoroska. Click here to view the full list of direct entries (pdf).
The first 15 alternates to the main draw in case of any withdrawals are as follows:
1. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
2. Yuliia Starodubtseva
3. Rebecca Marino
4. Harriet Dart
5. Alycia Parks
6. Sara Errani
7. Sara Sorribes Tormo
8. Daria Saville
9. Robin Montgomery
10. Ajla Tomljanovic
11. Viktorija Golubic
12. Ysaline Bonaventure (using a unique ranking of No.109)
13. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
14. Chloe Paquet
15. Anastasia Zakharova
Sinner, Alcaraz Want the Roland Garros Win
The era of the “Big Three” in men’s tennis is over. A promising new generation of rivals has emerged, led by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Whether or not the two superstars like it, their names will forever be inseparable.
However, Sinner and Alcaraz’s approaches to the game are different, including how they schedule their tournaments. Look no further than an exciting pair of announcements for each player’s 2025 ATP Tour schedule.
This week, Alcaraz committed to playing in the Barcelona Open (currently sponsored by Banc Sabadell). The Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Trofeo Conde de Godo, has been staged at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899, the oldest Spanish tennis club, since 1953.
The Barcelona Open is an ATP 500 tournament played on clay courts from April 14 to 20, 2025. It is one of the most important events in Spanish tennis.
Alcaraz said in a press release, “I am very happy to play again in Barcelona and fight for my third title. It is a very special tournament for me, with a lot of history, and it is played on some courts that I have known very well since I was little.”
The decision to play the Barcelona Open is good preparation for Alcaraz, who wants to retain the crown he won at Roland Garros last year. Just like the fans with Roland Garros tickets, Alcaraz knows that his main opponent, Sinner, isn’t going to back out of a challenge, and he wants to prepare well ahead.
Meanwhile, Sinner opted into the Bavarian International Tennis Championships (called the BMW Open for sponsorship purposes) last month. It is the first of four German tournaments on the season’s ATP Tour calendar, contested in Bavaria’s picturesque capital city of Munich.
The BMW Open is an ATP 500 tournament played on clay courts from April 14 to 20, 2025. Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz will join Sinner.
Of course, both tournaments are designed to prepare players for the ultimate clay court tournament – the French Open. Last year, Alcaraz defeated Sinner in the semifinals to capture his first title at Roland Garros.
Roland Garros tickets will soon be available to purchase.