The 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had a New York feel in the semifinal stage, with three of the four remaining women also semifinalists at the 2025 US Open.
But unlike in Queens, the crown at the season finale was won by Elena Rybakina.
The Kazakhstani, who achieved her best US Open result this season by reaching the fourth round, was a perfect 5-0 at the WTA Finals and capped her run with a 6-3, 7-6(0) final victory against reigning New York champ Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday.
Rybakina also beat US Open semifinalist Jessica Pegula in the semis and US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova in her opening round-robin match. Anisimova recovered from that defeat to reach the semis, but lost a rematch of the Queens final against world No. 1 Sabalenka.
The 26-year-old Rybakina's first WTA Finals title is her 11th tour-level crown, with her biggest trophy coming at Wimbledon in 2022. Before the magnitude of the moment began to sink in after match point, Rybakina remained zeroed in even with a 6-0 lead in the second-set tiebreak against the dangerous Sabalenka—who also had not lost a match en route to the final.
"I was trying to stay very focused," Rybakina said of her dominant finish. "And I think even on the tiebreak, only when I heard the game, set, match, then I realized that, yeah, the match is finished, because I had also experienced being up on the tiebreak and losing it. So honestly, I was just focusing really."
The victory stretched Rybakina's winning streak to 11 matches after her title in Ningbo, China, and her advance to the semifinals in Tokyo, where she pulled out with a back injury one week before Riyadh. She also won a title in Strasbourg in May, the first of her three trophies this season.
The first WTA Finals champion representing Kazakhstan, or any Asian nation, Rybakina improved to 8-6 against reigning world No. 1s with her final victory against Sabalenka. She joins Steffi Graf and Serena Williams as the only women since the start of the WTA rankings in 1975 with a winning record against No. 1s (minimum 10 matches played).
"She played incredible," said Sabalenka, who will finish atop the WTA rankings for the second consecutive season. "I feel like I did my best today. It didn't work, but I think so many things I have to be proud of."
In Riyadh doubles action, Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens claimed their second WTA Finals title with a 7-6(1), 6-1 victory over Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani on Saturday. After winning the year-end trophy in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2022, Kudermetova and Mertens did not play another match together until reuniting this April, when they reached consecutive WTA 1000 finals in Madrid and Rome in their first two events back as a pair.
