RIYADH: One of the most exciting WTA Finals in recent years wrapped up in Riyadh on Saturday with Elena Rybakina crowned champion at the event for the first time, pocketing a record $5.235 million in the process — the largest payout in women’s sports history.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the second staging of a three-year residency for the WTA Finals in the Saudi capital.
Rybakina sends a warning
Rybakina had an up and down season that included a six-month stint without her suspended coach and was the last of the eight singles players to qualify for the WTA Finals, yet somehow she found a way to salvage her year by winning her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022.
The Kazakh played herself into form in the last four weeks of the season, going on an 11-match winning streak across three tournaments, including five consecutive top-10 victories in Riyadh.
Despite battling a shoulder issue all week, Rybakina produced 48 aces during the WTA Finals, 28 of which came in the semi-finals and final.
She was near-unplayable against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the championship match — which she won 6-3, 7-6 (7-0) — and will have the rest of the field very worried at January’s Australian Open next season.
“Definitely we need to analyze and try to carry the good things for the next big moments,” said Rybakina, 26, who will rise to No. 5 in the world when the new rankings are released on Monday.
Sabalenka ends banner year on a losing note
Sabalenka has every reason to board that plane to the Maldives feeling proud of her 2025 campaign.
The Belarusian star secured the year-end No. 1 spot for a second consecutive season, she spent the entire year at the summit of the rankings with no interruptions, and
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