My 2025 top 10

The Venus Rosewater Dish is all yours, @iga_swiatek 🏆#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/b1iowvAckY

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2025

So many notable things occurred this year that I need a top 15 or a top 20.

Belinda Bencic, just a few months after returning from her maternity leave, won the championship in Abu Dhabi.

Jasmine Paolini won the Italian Open in both singles and doubles. 

Tatjana Maria, at age 37, won her first 500 title. 

The USA defended its junior Billie Jean King Cup championship. 

Elena Rybakina won the WTA Finals. 

Yui Kamiji, who, in Diede de Groot’s absence/rehab/return, became world number 1 again, won three singles majors, and took the Wheelchair Masters in both singles and doubles. 

Those were all important events, but—between the abundance of really big events and my own fondness for certain happenings and phenomena, I had to narrow down my top 10 occurrences, in ascending order:

10. Young blood: Lois Boisson, Victoria Mboko, and Alexandra Eala rocked the tour this year. Frenchwoman Boisson, ranked number 361 in the world, made her major debut at the French Open, and made the most of it—she reached the semifinals, knocking out the likes of Elise Mertens, Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva along the way. A couple of months later, she would win her first title, in Hamburg, and enter the top 50.

Canadian Mboko became an instant star when she won the Canadian Open, a 1000 event, and rose to the top 20. And Philipino Eala, ranked number 140 in the world, was given a wild card to the Miami Open (a 1000 event), and reached the semifinals.

Eala’s run in Miiami was unbelievably dramatic: She took out Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, and Iga Swiatek before she was stopped by Jessica Pegula. This stunning run made Eala the first wild card in history to defeat three major champions in straight sets at a WTA event. She is also the first player from the Philippines to reach the semifinals of a 1000 event.

9. Seems like old times: Remember when the Fighting Four couldn’t stop winning? Francesca Schiavone, Flavia Pennetta, Sara Errani, and Roberta Vinci ruled Fed Cup for a long time (well, when the Czechs weren’t ruling it). Errani never left, and she and Jasmine Paolini form a solid base for the current Italian Billie Jean King Cup team. Last year, Italy won the Billie Jean King Cup; this year, Errani and Paolini, along with Lucia Bronzetti and Elisabetta Cocciaretto—all coached by Tathiana Garbin—defeated the USA in the final. Feels like a pattern.

8. Take this show on the road: I’ve heard a lot of International Tennis Hall of Fame induction speeches, and a lot of acceptance speeches. The induction speeches were generally what one would expect, though a few of the acceptance speeches stand out for me (Jennifer Capriati’s candid and memorable speech, Aranxa Sanchez-Viccario’s indictment of sexism in tennis, Mary’s Pierce’s beyond-description speech). But there was never before anything like Serena Williams’ induction of Maria Sharapova, which occurred this year. 

Apparently, I was one of the few people who wasn’t shocked by this occurrence. It actually seemed just right, in light of the pair’s long history, and their more recent history. But it was more than an allegedly shocking twist—it was a delicious combination of honest emotion and comedic theatre. Sharapova has always been very funny, and—on this occasion—Williams was right there with her (“Security—I have a heckler”). I would gladly watch it again. And again. Those two…..

7. One singular sensation: This was the year that Katerina Siniakova tied Martina Navratilova for having the most doubles world number 1 year-end finishes (five) on the tour. It was also the year that she won her tenth major, and her first mixed doubles title (Wimbledon). The Czech player has established herself as one of the all-time greats in doubles. Of note: In September, the world number 1 teamed with former long-time partner Barbora Krejcikova, and they won the Korea Open. (I can’t help but want more of this.)

6. Virgo rising: If I had to pick a face for a tennis “Never Give Up” poster, I might pick Amanda Anisimova’s. Yes, she’s only 24, but she’s already lived what feels like a lifetime on the WTA tour. Anisimova has always had a lot of talent and potential, but—what with undergoing a personal tragedy and then, later, taking an eight-month break from tennis—it took her a while to put it all together. 

But did she ever put it together this year! Anisimova started by winning her first 1000 event in Qatar. She also reached her first grass court semifinal at the Queen’s Club Championships. But all that was just a prelude to some really big events: Anisimova fought hard to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon, in which she upset world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka. She then lost 0-6, 0-6 to Iga Swiatek in the final. But despite that scoreline, Anisimova would go on to also reach the final of the U.S. Open, upsetting Swiatek along the way. She lost that final to Sabalenka, but she entered the top five. What a season!

5. Saving the best for last: World number 1 Aryna Sabalenka had a somewhat (for her) frustrating season, in that she lost both the Australian Open (she was the two-time defending champion) and the French Open finals. But she won her second consecutive U.S. Open, as well as two 1000 titles. And for the second year in a row, Sabalenka ended the year as the world number 1.

4. Coco means France—then and now: Three years ago, Coco Guaff lost the French Open final to Iga Swiatek. This year, she won the title, and she did it by defeating world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Before she got to Sabalenka, Gauff took out, among others, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Madison Keys, and French Open breakout star Lois Boisson.

3. Worth the wait: According to Madison Keys, she spent much of her career wanting to win a major. For her, this was a realistic goal—from the start of that career, Keys was thought to have the kind of potential that could get her a very big trophy. But it didn’t happen. It almost happened in 2017, but Sloane Stephens allowed Keys only three games in the U.S. Open final. 

As she advanced in (tennis) years, Keys utilized her maturity to make some changes. She changed her racket, which—for a professional player—is a major change. And she made the decision to have someone help her delve into her psyche. She stopped believing that she had to win a major in order to achieve validation. And when she did that, she won one. At age 29, Keys won her first major, defeating two-time defending champion  and world number 1 Ayrna Sabalenka in the final of the Australian Open.

2. Too many goodbyes: Every season, we have to deal with at least one notable—or even elite—player’s retiring from professional tennis. This year, we had to deal with three notable retirements,  and that was, and is, difficult for fans. In February, two-time major champion Simona Halep announced her retirement, and this one was sad in a special way because Halep had been made to suffer for so long by the organizations that pretend to guard the tour’s morality (and who are still allowed to get away with their outrageous behaviors). Finally back on the tour, the Romanian star had to deal with injuries, and she called it quits. 

Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia also retired this year. Garcia, a key member of the French Billie Jean King Cup team, won eleven singles titles and eight doubles titles, two of which were majors. In 2022 and 2023, she led the tour in serving aces. 

And then there was Petra Kvitova. The two-time Wimbledon champion, whose career was made difficult by illness and was almost destroyed by a violent act perpetrated against her, was so many things to fans, media, and those who work in the professional tennis field. Adored and respected by her peers, the Czech star had a wicked sense of humor and an innate gentleness that lifted her to a status beyond that of “just” elite athlete. 

(Yes, Alize Cornet retired for the second time this year, but her “comeback” was so brief that—for me—she retired in 2024. She did get some good news this year, though: Cornet, who is also a very fine writer, was named captain of France’s Billie Jean King Cup team.

1. High on grass!: Former world number 1 Iga Swiatek made some changes this year. She hired a new coach, and she made some changes to her game. But the four-time French Open champion lost her semifinal match to world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka. To add insult to inury, Sabalenka turned the tables on the tour’s bakery queen and bageled her in the third set. But the clay court leader of her generation wasn’t to be left behind: In a major run that stunned some and delighted many, Swiatek won Wimbledon. Having defeated Belinnda Bencic 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals, she then defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the final. No one (perhaps not even the champions themselves) can say which are the sweetest victories, but this one had to rank pretty high in the Polish star’s resume. She has now won six singles majors.