Aryna Sabalenka was without a doubt the best player on the WTA Tour in 2025, but Rennae Stubbs feels the four-time Grand Slam winner will be “highly disappointed” with her season.
The Belarusian started the year at No 1 and also finished the campaign at the top as she became only the seventh woman to spend an entire calendar year atop the WTA Rankings whlie she also won the most titles (four) and topped the prize money earnings list ($15,008,519).
Although she reached four Grand Slam finals, Sabalenka won only won – and that was at the US Open when she defeated Amanda Anisimova in the final – with her other titles coming at the WTA 500 Brisbane International and the WTA 1000 Miami Open and Madrid Open.
She lost five of the nine finals she played in and some were big ones as she was beaten by Madison Keys at the Australian Open, Coco Gauff at the French Open and, most recently, Elena Rybakina at the WTA Finals.
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Doubles legend Stubbs was full of praise for Sabalenka’s “outrageously good” consistency in 2025, but says the four-time major winner will feel she should’ve won more trophies, especially majors.
“Aryna Sabalenka, another fantastic year, finishes world number one. It’s been a long time since [somebody has] gone back-to-back, since somebody has done that as well number one,” the four-time women’s doubles Grand Slam winner said on the Rennae Stubbs podcast.
“But having said that, I would venture to say that she would say it was a great year, but it wasn’t the year that she would have hope for.
“And that’s an amazing thing to say when you reach as many finals as she has, as you are the pinnacle of world number one two years in a row, the consistency that she had this year was outrageously good.
“But having only won one, essentially one major title, the US Open, I would say that she would say that this year was a little bit of a failure.
“And I mean that in the nicest way, because she’s been so good and consistently the best player all year and making all the finals that she did.
“I think she would be highly disappointed that she lost in the finals of the Australian Open, that she lost in the semi-finals of Wimbledon, that she lost the final of the French Open, and then she lost to Rybakina in the WTA Final.
“I think that for her, someone who’s that dominant would be very disappointed that they didn’t get more major titles under their belt this year. And she sort of deserved it, but in the end, if you don’t win, you don’t deserve it.”
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