Rybakina crashes the party--let the 2026 preparations begin

The Queen of the 2025 WTA Finals.

Elena Rybakina. 👑

🇰🇿🩵 pic.twitter.com/zMbU20t50Q

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) November 8, 2025

Just over a week before the start of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Elena Rybakina hadn't made it into the top 8, but she did make it--just in time--and then went on to run over the field and win the event. The 2022 Wimbledon champion hasn't had an easy time of it lately, but--other than having a bit of a problem with her shoulder--you wouldn't have known it last week. Among her accomplishments were: defeating Amanda Anisiova in straight sets, allowing Iga Swiatek only seven games (and delivering a bagel, usually Swiatek's signature), and defeating world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets (and delivering a mini bagel in the second set tiebreak).

Rybankina dad been dealing with some health issues, which went away, but now they've returned, so she'll be getting some health checks done during the off-season. We can only imagine what she'll play like when she's 100% healthy. A healthy Rybakina is threat at all times.

Sabalenka, Swiatek, Coco Gauff, and Rybakina have all had an interesting season. The world number 1 sneaked a major victory in toward the end of the season, at the U.S. Open, at which she was the defending champion, but fell short in finals at the Australian Open (at which she was also the defending champion), the French Open, and the WTA finals.  Overlooked is the fact that Sabalenka made it the final in Paris, an achievement that was probably not expected by many fans and observers. Sabalenka also won Brisbane, Miami and Madrid, and ended the year as the top-ranked player in the world for the second consecutive time. 

Former world number 1 Swiatek had a most unusual year. After parting ways with long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and hiring Wim Fissette, she went through much of 2025 without winning a title, and that losing run included her failure to win a fifth French Open title (she was the defending champion). Then she did what hardly anyone was expecting--she won Wimbledon, The Polish star would go on to win both Cincinnati and Seoul. 

Coco Gauff won the French Open, and she also reached the finals of both Madrid and Rome. She would go on to win Wuhan, a 1000 event, in October. Gauff was the defending champion at the WTA Finals, but did not make it out of her round robin group after losing to both Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka.  The world number 3 has continued to struggle with her serve.

Of course, in 2026, tennis fans will also be looking at Zheng Qinwen, Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini to continue to add to their trophy collections. Paolini didn't have the kind of season that she had in 2024, in which her singles break-out was dramatic, but Fighting Italians are nothing, if not determined and scrappy. It will also be interesting to keep an eye on Ekaterina Alexandrova, who--at age 30, joined the top 10 for the first time in the career. And then there's Jessica Pegula, known as Ms. Consistency, and the remarkable Amanda Anisimova, who took the long road to get into elite portion of the WTA, but who is now number 4 in the world.