Elise Mertens put together a quietly impressive 2025, producing her best season in five years and collecting strong results across both singles and doubles. She reached No. 20 in singles, her first Top 20 finish since 2020 and the fourth Top 20 year of her career, while securing a seventh straight Top 10 year in doubles by finishing 2025 at No. 5.

Most of Mertens’ singles success arrived at WTA 250 events. She won titles in Singapore and ’s-Hertogenbosch and reached one more final in Hobart. At ’s-Hertogenbosch she claimed her 10th WTA title and her first on grass, completing WTA titles on every surface in her career. She fought off an incredible 11 match points in her 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 semifinal victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova there, which was the most match points any woman has saved in a tour-level match so far this decade. She also reached WTA 500 quarterfinals in Stuttgart and Monterrey.

Doubles remained a major strength. Partnering Veronika Kudermetova, Mertens won Wimbledon and the WTA Finals; with the four Grand Slams going to four different teams in 2025, they were the only pair to capture two of the five biggest titles. She ended the year as one of only three women ranked in the Top 20 in both singles and doubles, alongside Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva.

Mertens won 70 matches across both disciplines in 2025, 36 in singles and 34 in doubles, and demonstrated continued threat against top opponents. She recorded four Top 20 wins during the year, including her eighth career victory over a Top 5 player with her 7-5, 6-1 defeat of then-No. 4 Jessica Pegula in Rome. She also pushed Top 10 players to three sets on four additional occasions.

Her combination of late-match resilience, surface versatility and doubles credentials made 2025 a standout campaign and left her positioned as a player to watch in the season ahead.

We counted down the Top 5 WTA matches of the 2025 season, but several other encounters deserve recognition. These honorable mentions include matches defined by stubborn defense, extreme endurance, dramatic reversals and one classic tactical duel.

Come for Siegemund’s maddening array of slices, drops, angles, lobs, passes, volleys, and delay tactics; stay for Sabalenka’s Herculean effort to overcome them. Sabalenka survives Siegemund’s “maddening array of slices, drops, angles, lobs, passes, volleys, and delay tactics” at Wimbledon, a contest that showcased patience, power and a refusal to yield the initiative.

The numbers—3 hours, 32 minutes; 156 unforced errors; 44 break points—were staggering, even if the level of play in this anti-epic wasn’t. That match joins others in this list as an example of endurance and unpredictability across the season. Gauff’s comeback win, from 3-5 in the third, helped launch her to a Roland Garros title and underlined how single matches can alter the arc of a season.

Two of the pleasant surprises of 2025 met in a berserk Big Apple epic. Eala’s Filipino fanbase helped her slug her way back from 1-5 in the third, and pulverize a final winning forehand on her fifth match point. That victory was a reminder that momentum and crowd energy remain decisive in tight moments.

There was also a turning point for Iga. Down 6-1, 2-0 and with her Queen of Clay crown slipping, she took a rip at two backhands, and won two points. From there, her topspin bombs started finding their targets again. Six weeks later, she was Wimbledon champ, illustrating how a brief change in approach can reset a player’s season.

These matches did not make our Top 5, but they contributed to a 2025 season rich in variety: tactical duels, marathon contests and resilient comebacks that kept fans engaged.

Amanda Anisimova’s win over Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court was the defining moment of a season that produced both an established No. 1 and a breakout story. Sabalenka and Anisimova met four times in 2025, all on major stages—at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, the US Open, and the WTA Finals—and their meetings were among the tour’s most intense.

The Wimbledon semifinal carried added weight: Sabalenka arrived as the top seed and the best player of 2025, while Anisimova had never been this far at a major. The American matched Sabalenka’s power from both wings and entered the match with a 5-3 advantage in their head-to-head record. Still, this was a different test, with a first Grand Slam final on the line.

Anisimova began with composure and intent, finding winners and matching Sabalenka’s on-court presence. She captured the opening set 6-4, audible in her celebrations and displays of force. The second set slipped away 6-4 when she did not convert opportunities, and the third set became a study in pressure and resilience.

Up 4-1 and later serving at 5-3, Anisimova squandered a match point and was broken. When Sabalenka served at 4-5 the American surged to 0-40, triple match point, only to see the margin shrink. At those moments, nerves were visible. “I was absolutely dying out there,” Anisimova admitted later.

The decisive exchange came when Sabalenka served down the middle and the return left little choice. Anisimova stepped in and struck a forehand that clipped the corner inside the baseline as Sabalenka scrambled forward. The shot ended Sabalenka’s comeback attempt and sent Anisimova into her first Grand Slam final, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

“It was such a tough match and a little bit of a roller coaster there,” Anisimova said after her 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory. “I think we were both a bit shaky throughout the match. That showed.”

She credited changes off court for her steadiness, including a six-month break and a new coaching partnership with Rick Vleeshouwers. “‘You’re doing great, just stay calm,’” she told herself after she lost the second set. “The opposite of what a tennis player is usually telling themselves.”

“I could not believe it,” she said of her final winning forehand. “I was just so relieved.”