As we continue to look back at the 2025 tennis season, this post includes a selection of my favourite moments from the year including my picks for the annual WTA awards and other highlights such as funniest and most dramatic moment of the year. For a look back at my award winners and favourite moments from previous years, click here.

WTA player of the year

There wasn’t a clear-cut player of the year with the Slam winners evenly split. For sheer consistency across the entire duration of the season, i’m going for Aryna Sabalenka. Aside from Doha and Dubai, Sabalenka made at least the quarter-finals of every tournament she played. Sabalenka’s record at the Slams over the last three years has been extraordinary, reaching at least the semi-finals at 10 of her last 11 Slams.

Most improved player

There were plenty of viable candidates this year including Clara Tauson, McCartney Kessler, Mirra Andreeva and Linda Noskova. However, my clear winner for the most improved player is Amanda Anisimova. It was a magnificent year for Anisimova who reached two Slam finals, won two 1000 events in Doha and Beijing, and racked up 10 top ten wins. Even after the Slam finals, Anisimova kept on building momentum as she reached the semi-finals at the WTA Finals.

Newcomer of the year

Once again, there were plenty of contenders with Alexandra Eala, Maya Joint and Lois Boisson all breaking through in 2025. My newcomer of the year is Victoria Mboko who I had barely heard of at the start of the year. Mboko flew up the rankings from #333 at the start of the season into the world’s top 20 at #18. This included a fairytale run to the title at home in Montreal, another trophy in Hong Kong and qualifying for the main draw in French Open and then reaching the third round.

Comeback player of the year

This was the easiest pick for the WTA awards – Belinda Bencic returned to the tour following the birth of her first child and won a title within two months! I’d gone big on Bencic at Wimbledon for many years and in 2025 it actually happened as she reached the semi-finals. From #487 at the start of the year, Bencic is now on the cusp of cracking the top ten for the fourth time in her career.

Best match of the year

As shared in the best matches post, my favourite match of the year was the Australian Open final where Madison Keys outplayed Aryna Sabalenka in a thrilling match to win her first Slam title.

Most dramatic match of the year

The US Open produced some of the most dramatic matches of the year. Alexandra Eala against Clara Tauson had it all on day one but i’ll go for the fourth round clash between Barbora Krejcikova and Taylor Townsend where Krejcikova saved eight match points, most of them in a wild second set tiebreak, to win in three dramatic sets.

Most dramatic moment of the year

There were quite a few 👀. My runner-up was Sakkari-Putintseva in Bad Homburg when Sakkari objected to Putinteva’s half-hearted handshake and unleashed the “Nobody likes you” comment.

Unfortunately the winner has to be the post-handshake exchange between Jelena Ostapenko against Taylor Townsend from the US Open with Ostapenko’s disappointing remarks at the net. It’s not the first time that Ostapenko has been embroiled in a moment like this (and probably not the last) but I will say that generally, I thought Ostapenko had mellowed and she initiated hugs after losses earlier in the year that floored me 😂.

Handshakes and hugs moment of the year

I’ll go for Kasatkina throwing a wristband at Andreeva before embracing at the net after their match at the French Open. I enjoyed watching their exchanges on Dasha’s vlog.

Funniest moment of the year

I’ve got a top three this year. Pegula taking Sabalenka’s margarita when she was being interviewed by Tennis Channel after the Miami Open final was funny. Danielle Collins winding up the Australian crowd in her match against Destanee Aiava was iconic.

For the funniest moment of the year, i’m going for Iga Swiatek in press at the French Open when she was asked about who she would prefer to play in the next round, either Elena Rybakina or Jelena Ostapenko. Of course, Ostapenko has beaten Swiatek all six times that they have played. It was a rare light-hearted moment where Iga let her guard down and I really warmed to her for it!

Saddest moment of the year

My two saddest moments both came at Wimbledon. The first was Petra Kvitova playing her final match at Wimbledon. Petra’s career has spanned my tennis fandom and I loved her two runs to the title at SW19. It was a particularly poignant moment to see her play her last match on the grass. Martina Navaratilova was on commentary for the match and was clearly emotional as they began the on-court ceremony.

The saddest moment of the year was the Wimbledon final. Anisimova’s post-match interview broke me 😢.

Story of the year

There were so many incredible stories in 2025. Victoria Mboko winning Montreal as a wild card and Tatjana Maria winning Queens as a qualifier were probably the two most surprising. Alexandra Eala’s run to the Miami Open semi-finals was up there too. Jasmine Paolini winning singles and doubles at home in Rome was a lovely moment. My winner and favourite story from 2025 was Madison Keys winning the Australian Open, beating Swiatek and Sabalenka back-to-back to win her first Major title.

Best prediction

Nothing special. Pre-tournament, I correctly predicted the Sabalenka-Keys Australian Open final, Sabalenka-Gauff French Open final and the Sabalenka-Anisimova Wimbledon semi-final. I went the wrong way on all three though!

Worst prediction

I lost three of my four semi-finalists for the US Open (Tauson, Mboko and Keys) in the first round!