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.”

Iga Swiatek’s 2025 season combined a historic major triumph with stretches of inconsistency. The former No. 1 arrived at Roland Garros with hopes of a four-peat only to see that bid end in the semifinals against Aryna Sabalenka. “Obviously looking at the math, I lost many points right now, but I know that it doesn’t really matter. Any of us can win these tournaments,“ Swiatek reflected after that loss.

Earlier in the year she held a match point on eventual Australian Open champ Madison Keys in a gripping semifinal and left Paris with 32 wins on the season. Talk surfaced about a title drought approaching a year, yet those numbers and moments showed the campaign was far from disastrous. Still, Swiatek could not clear her first five semifinal hurdles until she reached the grass swing.

For the first time in June she competed for a grass-court title. After what looked like a likely loss at Bad Homburg to Jessica Pegula, Swiatek rewrote the script at Wimbledon. A former junior champion who had gone 13-5 in her first five visits to the All England Club, she put together a flawless fortnight. In the final she defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0, becoming the first woman since Monica Seles to win her first six major finals. She dropped two total games across the semifinal and final.

Beyond Wimbledon, Swiatek added a WTA 1000 title at Cincinnati and a WTA 500 crown at Seoul, sealing a fourth consecutive Top 2 year-end finish and setting up a Career Grand Slam bid in January Down Under. —Matt Fitzgerald

The numbers underline both dominance and vulnerability. In 2025 she recorded seventeen 6-0 set wins and 24 sets won 6-1, yet she also suffered four 6-0 set losses and nine 6-1 defeats. By comparison, world No. 1 Sabalenka lost just two sets 6-1 and none 6-0 in 2025, while world No. 3 Coco Gauff lost one set 6-0 and three 6-1. Swiatek lost a set by 6-0 or 6-1 in 12 matches in 2025 and won only three of those encounters. Her highs remain exceptional, but the season exposed lows as stark as any since she rose into the sport’s elite.