2025 Year in Review: Unpredictability Rules Women’s Tennis

[Editor’s note: This article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 “Year in Review” magazine, which celebrates the year’s champions and relives the biggest moments from across the world of sports. Order your copy online today, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Just when you think you’ve got the WTA figured out, it humbles you.

Before the 2025 season started, women’s professional tennis appeared headed down a relatively narrow path. Aryna Sabalenka was going to own the hard courts, Iga Swiatek would dominate the clay and challengers like Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula would be there to take advantage if either of the two heavyweights stumbled.

There were other potential challengers, of course, but for the first time in a long while, the range of possible outcomes seemed surprisingly narrow.

Whoops.

Australian Open

Madison Keys Comes out of Nowhere

Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 1 player in the world, opened the season on fire. She dominated Brisbane, dropping just one set en route to a title, then rolled through the early rounds at the Australian Open, where she entered as the two-time defending champion.

At that point, the tournament felt ceremonial. We were just biding our time until Sabalenka lifted the trophy for a third consecutive year.

She dropped just two sets in her first 11 matches in 2025, making her a heavy favorite over Madison Keys in the Final.

For her entire career, Keys was defined by coming up short in big moments. As powerful and athletic as anybody on the WTA Tour, the Illinois native seemed on the verge of becoming one of the heavyweights of her generation, but she was always held back by her inability to meet the moment.

Keys was 1-5 in Grand Slam semifinals before the 2025 Australian Open, and her only trip to a major final ended in nightmare fashion.

In fact, it looked like Keys’ blowout loss to unseeded Sloane Stephens in the 2017 U.S. Open Final was going to end up being the defining moment of her career. A crowning moment at her home Grand Slam was there for the taking, and Keys wilted.

Tennis is a mental sport. It takes place between the ears as much as it does between the lines. That’s why it’s extremely rare for a player to overcome the kind of baggage that Keys brought onto the court on the final day of the 2025 Australian Open. Not only did she have to upset the World No. 1, but she had to change the narrative for her entire career.

In the blistering heat and ever-shifting winds of Melbourne, Keys defied the odds and finally crossed a threshold that had eluded her.

The way she won the final, which ended 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, was poetic. Known for melting down in the big moments, the American held her nerve against the two-time defending champ.

Not only was it the biggest win of Keys’ career, but the 2025 Australian Open final served as a reminder that this sport – normally cruel and cares not for romance – does, from time to time, reward patience and perseverance.

French Open

Coco Gauff’s Continued Rise

If Melbourne was about a long-awaited breakthrough and a fairytale moment for a player who desperately needed one, Paris was about the process.

While Keys’ career zigged and zagged, Coco Gauff’s was linear.

Gauff had already established herself as one of the rising powers in Women’s Tennis with her U.S. Open win in 2023, but the jury was out on whether the American would ever conquer the clay at Roland-Garros.

Gauff had made some deep runs in Paris in her career, but with Iga Swiatek dominating the surface and Sabalenka establishing herself as the clear No. 1 player in the world, there didn’t seem to be room for Gauff.

But the Florida native did what she does best. She steadily got better as the tournament went on, earning a shot at Sabalenka in the final.

The Belarusian was the clear favorite and won the first set in a nervy tiebreak, but Gauff took the match from there by making brilliant adjustments that completely threw Sabalenka off her game and caused the World No. 1 to lose her cool.

The 6–7(5), 6–2, 6–4 victory in windy conditions displayed everything that makes Gauff such a formidable presence: speed around the court, improved forehand consistency and a steady hand in the key moments.

Wimbledon

Iga Swiatek’s Stunning Performance

Even the best players in the world can stun you in tennis.

For Swiatek, 2025 looked like it was going to be a lost year. The longtime world No. 1 lost the plot in the Australian Open semis and did the same at the French Open, where she was a three-time defending champion. She was now entering the part of the season where she historically struggled the most.

The Polish native never appeared comfortable on grass, and that showed in her record at Wimbledon. Swiatek never made it beyond the quarterfinals in her first five trips to the All-England Club, and she only made it beyond Round 3 on two of those occasions.

Seemingly without warning, Swiatek made sense of the grass in 2025. She made it to the finals of a Wimbledon warmup event, then carried that form with her to London, where she put together one of the most dominant performances in Grand Slam history.

She dropped just one set en route to the final, where she met Amanda Anisimova, the American making an emotional return after a mental break from the WTA Tour. Anisimova was playing the best tennis of her career, but she ran into a buzzsaw.

Swiatek produced a flawless performance: 6–0, 6–0 in just 57 minutes.