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.

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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.

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.

Richard Pagliaro is Tennis Now Managing Editor. He is a graduate of New York University and has covered pro tennis for more than 35 years. Richard was tennis columnist for Gannett Newspapers in NY, served as Managing Editor for TennisWeek.com and worked as a writer/editor for Tennis.com. He has been TennisNow.com managing editor since 2010.

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