Sabalenka 'without a doubt' better player than Swiatek in 2025 says legend
NewsFriday, 10 October 2025 at 19:24
Aryna Sabalenka has been undoubtedly the best player in 2025 according to legendary Tracy Austin.
Only a couple of years ago, Swiatek was the player who traumatized the whole WTA Tour. She seemed to be unimaginably better than the rest of her competitors, but that was only until a certain Aryna Sabalenka showed.
Although multiple players have managed to trouble Swiatek over the years, most notably Jelena Ostapenko, who beat the Pole in all six of their meetings, Sabalenka has been the only player who stepped up overall, winning major titles and reaching the world No. 1 rank.
Those times when Swiatek seemed to be far ahead of everyone else seem to be long over, and the 2025 season proves it as well. The 2024 season was affected by the Polish player's suspension, which prevented her from participating in some events, directly impacting her ranking.
This year, however, the playing field has been level, and so far, Sabalenka has been the best player, at least according to former World No. 1 Tracy Austin. She compared Sabalenka's and Swiatek's 2025 season on the Tennis Channel.
Both won a Grand Slam title this year: Swiatek at Wimbledon and Sabalenka at the US Open. However, the Belarusian player has won more titles than her rival so far and also leads the 2025 WTA Race dominantly.
Sabalenka was the first player to reach 10,000 points in 2025. That's the exact number of points she has in the race ranking next to her name at the moment. Swiatek, in second, has accumulated a total of 8,368 points so far, and she won't add to that number in Wuhan, as she lost in the quarter-finals to Jasmine Paolini.
According to Austin, Sabalenka's 2025 season has been superior to Swiatek's, but the former American player is also delighted to see Swiatek improve her level in the season's closing stages.
"Without a doubt, it’s Sabalenka. Sabalenka has won four titles, so she’s won more than Swiatek. Swiatek has won three, it’s kind of come at the end of the year, kind of towards the middle, and towards the end. Also four other finals, [Sabalenka] has gone deeper in the majors."
"[Sabalenka] has been the most successful player this year, with the most wins, and I think that’s why it was so important for her to cap it off with that US Open title. But it was good to see Swiatek start to play better."
The WTA year-end No. 1 battle seems to be over
With a maximum of 1,500 points up for grabs at the WTA Finals and the current gap between Sabalenka and Swiatek standing at 1,632 points, the Polish player would need to sign up for at least one more event before the end of the year to still battle for the world No. 1 spot.
At the moment, neither Swiatek nor Sabalenka appears on any entry list for the remainder of the season, which means that Sabalenka's year-end No. 1 spot seems to be secured.
On top of that, even if Swiatek played and won a WTA 500 event, she would then need to win the WTA Finals without losing, while Sabalenka would need to lose most of her matches.
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