Aryna Sabalenka has been named the WTA Player of the Year for the second season in a row, following a 2024 campaign where she played consistently well.
Her year featured another Grand Slam title, this time at the US Open, along with three more final appearances. On top of that, she held onto the world number one ranking throughout the entire year.
The award came down to five candidates, including Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys. The fan vote was close between Sabalenka and Swiatek but in the end, it went to the Belarusian star.
Even though Sabalenka had another excellent year and was more than worthy of her recognition, there are still other top players who stood out. So much so that some players have different opinions on who should have won it.
Why Jessica Pegula picked Coco Gauff over Aryna Sabalenka
Jessica Pegula is among those who believes Coco Gauff deserved to win Player of the Year over Aryna Sabalenka in 2024. In her view: “I think probably what stood out was like for me this year was probably how dominant Iga [Swiatek] was again towards kind of like since maybe May or so,” she said via Tennis Channel’s Twitter account (@tennischannel). She’s kind of started dominating again.”
Pegula didn’t take away from how good either were but admitted how solid Swiatek has been from summer until November:
Why Madison Keys backed Iga Swiatek as Player Of The Year
Aryna Sabalenka did more than enough during the 2024 season to earn another WTA Player of the Year nod. But there are still cases to be made for other stars across a packed schedule filled with memorable performances.
Iga Swiatek put together an outstanding run in France and finished strong at various points throughout 2024.
Coco Gauff capped off another impressive campaign by winning Olympic gold. You could also include Naomi Osaka for making deep runs after returning to full-time play following maternity leave.
The sheer volume of standout performances shows just how competitive women’s tennis is at every level right now.
Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys both say Aryna Sabalenka deserved WTA Player of the Year
Speaking on The Player’s Box Podcast, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk discussed numerous WTA and ATP end-of-year award categories.
One of those categories was the WTA Player of the Year Award.
The group considered both Amanda Anisimova and Elena Rybakina to be strong contenders.
Anisimova, who won the WTA Most Improved award, reached two Grand Slam finals this year, while Rybakina won the final 11 matches she played, winning the Ningbo Open and WTA Finals in the process.
In the end though, both Pegula and Keys agreed that Sabalenka deserved to win.
Aryna Sabalenka’s prize money earnings for 2025
Sabalenka entered 16 events throughout the season, winning four. She pulled in $15,008,519 [around £11 million] across those tournaments.
That set a new single-season record for a female player. Serena Williams previously held the record, collecting $12,385,572 during her 2013 campaign when she won 11 of the 13 finals she reached.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Ashleigh Barty sits in third place on that list, with $11,307,587 earned back in 2019.
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