Aryna Sabalenka Sets Gold Standard

By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, November 10, 2025
Photo credit: Rob Newell/Camerasport

Aryna Sabalenka is two-time year-end No. 1 and second to none in single season earnings.

Though Sabalenka lost to Elena Rybakina 6-3, 7-6(0) in the WTA Finals championship match on Saturday, she still emerged as a major winner.

The sixth-seeded Rybakina collected a WTA record champion’s check of $5.235 million for capturing her maiden WTA Finals crown going undefeated throughout the week.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka earned a $2.695 million runner-up payday and that was a big chunk of her record-earning season.

Sabalenka concludes the 2025 season earning a WTA single-season record $15,008,519 million in prize money. That shatters the previous record held by legendary Serena Williams, who collected $12,385,572 million during her spectacular 2013 season.

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A post shared by Aryna Sabalenka (@arynasabalenka)

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A post shared by Aryna Sabalenka (@arynasabalenka)

Interestingly, more than half of Sabalenka’s record prize money haul came at two tournaments: the US Open and WTA Finals.

In September, Sabalenka defeated Amanda Anisimova in the US Open final 6-3, 7-6(3) scoring a triple milestone posting her 100th major match win, becoming the first woman since Serena Williams (2012-2014) to successfully defend the US Open and collecting a Grand Slam record $5 Million champion’s check. That $5 million champion’s check in New York, combined with the $2.695 million Riyadh runner-up payday accounts for a little more than half of Sabalenka’s total 2025 prize money earnings.