Elena Rybakina 2025 Season Review – A strong finish for a top player

For Elena Rybakina, the 2025 season featured some on-court and off-court uncertainty: returning injuries, Grand Slam upsets, and coaching drama. However, she ultimately finished the season 60-19 with three titles, claiming the WTA Finals and coming into 2026 with lots of momentum. LWOT reflects on her season below.

Elena Rybakina 2025 Season Review

Some injuries, and Vukov’s suspension

Rybakina started the season off at a team event, winning consecutive matches at the United Cup before falling to rival Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. Rybakina’s first tournament was also marked by some controversy. Her coach Stefano Vukov was suspended by the WTA Tour from attending the Kazakh’s matches, days after Rybakina announced Vukov would re-join her team on Jan. 1. 

At the Australian Open, a frustrating shoulder injury hindered Rybakina in the fourth round, and she bowed out to eventual champion Madison Keys in three sets. She quickly returned to tennis at the Abu Dhabi Open, losing in the semifinals to Belinda Bencic.

Early losses began to pile up after a decent Middle-Eastern swing. She was upset by Mirra Andreeva at the BNP Paribas Open and Ashlyn Krueger at the Miami Open. As she opted not to defend a WTA 500 title in Stuttgart, Germany, Rybakina’s ranking slipped out of the Top 10.

Clay, traditionally not Rybakina’s best surface, did not work out well for the Kazakh early on. Early losses in Madrid and Rome continued to drop Rybakina’s ranking.

First season title with Grand Slam early losses 

Rybakina’s form began to improve in Strasbourg at a WTA 500 event, as she clinched the title to win her fourth career title on clay. In the French Open, however, she was handed a brutal draw; she had to face Iga Swiatek again in the fourth round and lost in a 1-6 6-3 7-5 thriller. Early in the second set, Rybakina had led by a set and a break.

Rybakina suffered a tough loss to Aryna Sabalenka at the Berlin Open, before she lost in arguably her most disappointing Grand Slam loss of 2025: a straight sets defeat to Clara Tauson in the third round. The 2022 Wimbledon Champion had never lost during the Wimbledon first week prior to that loss.

The Kazakh steadily built her ranking back into the Top 10, and despite some tough losses at the Citi Open and Canadian Open, she got revenge over Madison Keys in Cincinnati for her first Top 10 win in six months. In the quarterfinals of that tournament, she upset Aryna Sabalenka in an impressive 6-1 6-4 shutout, before again falling to Iga Swiatek in the semifinals.

Around this time, the WTA Tour investigation into Stefano Vukov concluded, and he was formally allowed to rejoin Rybakina’s team.

Yet, Rybakina could not build on her form at the US Open. She committed too many costly unforced errors in a fourth round loss to Marketa Vondrousova, before falling in more upsets early in the Asian Swing.

A return to form and WTA Finals win

Facing a tough scenario to qualify for the WTA Finals, Rybakina’s form improved. She won four matches to take home a second title of 2025 at the Ningbo Open, and two more wins at the WTA 500 Tokyo Open allowed Rybakina to clinch the last spot in the season-ending tournament. Her serve sharply improved late in the season, and she ultimately hit the most aces of any WTA player in 2025, with 516, according to the WTA Tour website. 

Rybakina started the WTA Finals with an impressive straight-sets win over Amanda Anisimova. She got much-needed revenge against Iga Swiatek in her second round-robin match in a 3-6 6-1 6-0 victory, and qualified for the semifinals with a win over alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Rybakina would ultimately win five big-time Top 10 matches in a row to win the WTA Finals for the first time in her career — in addition to a WTA Tour record $5.2 million paycheck. In the final, she again stunned Aryna Sabalenka 6-3 7-6 to finish the season ranked world #5, one spot higher than her 2024 finish.

It seemed unlikely at times, but Rybakina improved on her 2024 form overall, winning 18 more matches in 2025 and taking home a bigger title. However, the early Grand Slam losses were a big disappointment, as Rybakina has now not reached a Grand Slam final since 2023. Reaching a Slam quarterfinal at either the Australian Open and French Open will be an important milestone towards building back to a Grand Slam win.