Kazakh wins maiden WTA Finals crown.
World No. 6 Elena Rybakina overcame her potential injury concerns to down Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the 2025 WTA Finals on Saturday. The Kazakh powerhouse outhit the top seed from the baseline, completing a dominant 6-3 7-6(0) victory in the process. The 26-year-old former Wimbledon winner will take home a grand total of $5.23 million alongside her maiden season-ending championship.
It was a near-perfect performance from Rybakina, whose 2025 campaign was full of ups and downs. She is now the first player from Kazakhstan, as well as Asia, to win the WTA Finals. Having won two titles prior to this, Rybakina beat the #1 and #2 players in the world (Sabalenka and Swiatek) en route to getting her hands on the trophy here in Saudi Arabia.
Eleven seems to be the lucky number for Rybakina at the WTA Finals 2025. In defeating Sabalenka, she earned her 11th Top-10 win of the season. The former World No. 3 had pinpoint accuracy in terms of her court coverage and groundstroke attacks on Saturday, giving the current World No. 1 no time to play first strike tennis. Despite Sabalenka’s best efforts, Rybakina closed out the encounter in straight sets for her 11th career singles trophy.
Even though she lost the final, Sabalenka will pocket $2.6 million from the WTA Finals. The first set was a heavy-fitting affair, with both players looking to take time away from their opponent. Rybakina broke midway through the opener to go up 4-2, and eventually closed it out with a scoreline of 6-3 after some errors from Sabalenka.
The Belarusian queen is not a four-time Grand Slam champion for no reason. Sabalenka’s resilience was on full display in the second set, as she saved multiple break points to stay afloat. She went into the duel with a head-to-head record of 8-5 against Rybakina, including a success at last month’s Wuhan Open. As the tug of war continued, there was little to separate the two players and the match went into a tiebreaker.
While Sabalenka had a 22-2 record in tiebreakers this year, it wasn’t meant to be on this occasion. The relentless attacks from Rybakina resulted in the top seed running out of gas towards the end of the second set. The 6th seed closed it out without losing a point, and improved her record to 58-19 in 2025. Meanwhile, Sabalenka will end her season with 63 wins, four titles and five runner-up trophies to her name.
(Image Credits: Mike Frey, Imagn Images)
