The WTA season winds to a close this week, which means one thing: it’s time for the sport’s annual ritual of corralling a year’s worth of brilliance, bruises and borderline madness into a tidy set of award categories. No fan votes, no popularity contests — just cold, committee-issued judgment. And in a season where Anisimova resurfaced as a force, Swiatek rewrote her grass résumé, and Sabalenka carried the No.1 ranking around like a backpack full of bricks, the shortlists tell their own story.
Here’s a look at the major categories, the nominees, and the cases they’ve built — or in some cases, rebuilt — across the 2025 season.
WTA Player of the Year
The main prize reads like a census of the tour’s upper crust.
Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova lead the nominees, each making a convincing argument depending on which flavour of dominance you prefer.
Swiatek added Wimbledon — yes, Wimbledon — to a résumé once made almost entirely of red clay. She grabbed Cincinnati, qualified for the WTA Finals again, and showed that even in a turbulent, injury-traced season, her ceiling remains unmistakably sharp.
Sabalenka spent the entire year clinging to No.1, reached nine finals, won four titles, and only blinked in the WTA Finals title match against Rybakina. Speaking of whom: Rybakina sits here too after titles in Strasbourg, Ningbo and Riyadh — the latter a perfect 5–0 sweep.
Then there’s Anisimova, the shape-shifter of 2025. Two Grand Slam finals, two WTA-1000 titles, a WTA Finals semifinal. It was the kind of year that reshapes reputations.
Coco Gauff and Madison Keys join the list as Slam champions — Roland Garros for Gauff, the Australian Open for Keys.
Nominees: Anisimova, Gauff, Keys, Rybakina, Sabalenka, Swiatek.
Our choice? Amanda Anismova but Aryna will probably win it.
Most Improved Player of the Year
This isn’t the award for who played great: it’s for who climbed hardest. And 2025 had no shortage of movers.
Amanda Anisimova’s comeback-turned-renaissance puts her name near the top again. But so does Ekaterina Alexandrova, who barged her way into the Top 10, reached four WTA-500 finals and delivered her sharpest Grand Slam season yet.
Clara Tauson became impossible to ignore — winning Auckland, making a Dubai final, and hitting No.12.
Linda Noskova made finals in Prague and Tokyo, finishing at No.13.
And Mirra Andreeva, who won Indian Wells and Dubai at 17, looked on course to run away with the award until late-season frailties clipped her push for the WTA Finals.
Nominees: Alexandrova, Andreeva, Anisimova, Noskova, Tauson.
Our choice? Amanda Anisimova — again. No debate, no hesitation. She wins this one in a walk.
Newcomer of the Year
The future arrived quicker than expected in 2025, and it arrived in clusters.
Victoria Mboko, after storming through the ITF circuit, made noise in Miami and then collected titles in Montreal and Hong Kong — a teenage breakout fit for the algorithm age.
Lois Boisson, fresh off an ACL nightmare, used a wildcard in Paris to reach a shock semifinal. One month later, she won Hamburg.
Alexandra Eala had a banner season — Miami semifinal, Eastbourne final — while Maya Joint claimed Rabat and became Australia’s new No.1 almost overnight.
Iva Jovic snagged Guadalajara and reached the third round in Cincinnati as a lucky loser — at 17.
And then there’s Eva Lys, who went from No.129 to No.40, reached a WTA-1000 quarterfinal in Beijing, made the US Open fourth round, and earned the nickname “Lucky Lys” with a wink and a bit of truth.
Nominees: Boisson, Eala, Joint, Jovic, Lys, Mboko.
Our choice? Victoria Mboko and we believe she’ll win it.
WTA Comeback Player of the Year
The award for players who didn’t just climb back — they clawed back.
Belinda Bencic is the obvious leader. After maternity leave, she produced one of the most seamless returns the tour has seen: Australian Open fourth round, titles in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo, Wimbledon semifinal.
Elina Svitolina is one of the few who can match that post-maternity sharpness.
Sorana Cirstea returned from foot surgery to win Cleveland as a qualifier and spend the summer making late-stage runs again.
Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova both spent chunks of the year injured, yet produced superb US Open showings.
And Anastasija Sevastova resurfaced with wins that mattered — including a victory over Pegula in Montreal.
Nominees: Bencic, Cirstea, Krejcikova, Sevastova, Vondrousova.
Our choice? Belinda Bencic and we think she will win it.
WTA Doubles Team of the Year
The doubles race is its own universe — and 2025 gave us no clean storyline.
Andreeva/Shnaider snatched Miami and Brisbane, all pace and precocity.
Dabrowski/Routliffe picked up the US Open and Stuttgart.
Kudermetova/Mertens produced the Wimbledon title and WTA Finals crown, plus finals in Madrid and Rome.
Errani/Paolini sealed Roland Garros and defended Rome.
Townsend/Siniakova won Melbourne, Dubai and finished runner-up in New York, climbing to No.1 on teamwork, tension and tactical grit.
Nominees: Andreeva/Shnaider, Dabrowski/Routliffe, Errani/Paolini, Kudermetova/Mertens, Siniakova/Townsend.
Our choice? Kudermetova and Mertens should win it — but we suspect Siniakova and Townsend might just edge them on the final ballot.
The Untidy Season
If the WTA wanted clarity, 2025 didn’t give it.
What it did give was a season full of comebacks, breakthroughs, reinventions and the occasional meteor, all squeezed into a handful of categories.
Awards are tidy.
The season that produced them was anything but.