Best tennis moments of 2025

Every year’s end brings with it an opportunity to reminisce and reflect. While some choose to learn from the mistakes made, others look back with fondness and admiration at the moments that brought joy and excitement.

The world of sports is a fascinating place and delivers myriad emotions to fans. The chills, the thrills, the jubilation, and the heartbreak are all part of following your favourite teams and athletes.

Tennis offers everything to its fans: intensity, skill, physicality, and thrilling moments. Here, we present in no particular order our pick of the eight best tennis moments from this year.

Young talent rising at the Australian Open

Young talent rose to fame at the 2025 Australian Open, with two of the brightest stars showing their skills on one of the biggest stages on the ATP Tour.

18-year-old João Fonseca showed why he’s a special player when he blew away a top-10 ranked player, Andrey Rublev, in straight sets in the first round. Though Fonseca lost in four sets to Lorenzo Sonego in the second round, he earned plaudits from ex-players and enthusiasts alike. 

Elsewhere, American teenager Learner Tien surprised one and all by beating former World No.1 Daniil Medvedev in the second round. Tien even made it to the fourth round before exiting the tournament. On the way to the fourth round, he also defeated Camilo Ugo Carabelli and Corentin Moutet. Incidentally, Tien lost to the same opponent who beat Fonseca.

But just like the left-handed Brazilian, Tien also showed the tennis world that he could compete at the highest level against the top players. These two players showed the world a glimpse of their immense potential early in the season. 

The inspiring comeback of Belinda Bencic

Belinda Bencic had an extraordinary season on the WTA Tour this year. She returned to professional tennis at the end of last year, after stepping away in September 2023 due to pregnancy. Not much was expected from Bencic, as it’s difficult for women players to return to the gruelling level of physicality and fitness required in professional tennis after giving birth, but Bencic proved everyone wrong by making an incredible comeback.

When she re-joined the tour, Bencic’s ranking had plummeted to 487th in the world, but she rallied back in style, beating top-ranked players at the Australian Open before winning two WTA titles in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo. The 28-year-old also beat top-ranked players on her way to the Wimbledon semi-finals, ending the year ranked 11th in the world.

The likes of the legendary Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters have made successful comebacks in the past. Clijsters was an absolute champion, winning three Grand Slam titles after giving birth. Even Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, and Victoria Azarenka have made a successful return on tour in recent years. Belinda Bencic is another success story added to this illustrious list of top female stars who forged the path for future players who would want to have a family along with a successful sporting career.

As a result of her achievements this year, Bencic was also honoured by the WTA with the 2025 Comeback of the Year award. The former World No. 4 and Olympic gold-medallist proved that returning to the top level is possible with hard work, focus, and an unrelenting mentality.

Coco Gauff finally conquering her favourite surface

The red clay of Roland-Garros is Coco Gauff’s favourite surface. She has performed well at the French Open on several occasions but never crossed the finishing line until this year.

In 2022, Gauff reached the final but was defeated in straight sets by former World No.1 Iga Swiatek. She had two more meetings here with Swiatek: in the 2023 quarter-finals and the 2024 semi-finals. She ended up losing both encounters.

However, this year brought her an opportunity to win on the Roland-Garros clay. She secured her way to the final by beating Madison Keys in the semi-finals, though she still had a massive obstacle standing in her way in the form of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

Both players started the final well, but Sabalenka edged the first set in a tie-breaker. As it looked like the Belarusian would hand her another final defeat, the weather changed. Amid heavy winds, Gauff adjusted her game, showcasing better composure and fight to win the second set. Having gotten the momentum on her side, with Sabalenka making too many errors, Gauff ended up winning the decider to take home her second Grand Slam title.

Though Gauff didn’t perform well at the remaining Grand Slams this year, she showed mental toughness and great defensive capabilities by coming back from a set down and winning on her favourite surface.

Carlos Alcaraz’s show of grit and recovery at the French Open

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are the top two players in men’s tennis at the moment and have battled each other for several major titles in recent years. That said, the 2025 Roland-Garros will forever be etched in history for the way it was contested by these two.

Clay is undoubtedly Alcaraz’s favourite surface, which he showcased by reaching the final at Roland-Garros this year after winning the previous year. In contrast, Sinner likes the hard courts more and hasn’t been as adept on slow clay. Therefore, as the two players came into the final, Alcaraz was the clear favourite.

However, the unpredictability of this sport is what makes it so special and beautiful. To everyone’s surprise, Sinner raced into a two-set lead before Alcaraz came back to win the third set. Sinner had three championship points in the fourth set, and it felt like he had conquered his most difficult surface, but Alcaraz made a sensational comeback to deny Sinner the three championship points. He won the fourth set and then forced a fifth-set tie-breaker to win an epic final that lasted five hours and 29 minutes.

Both players put on an exceptional display, but there could only be one winner on the day, and that was Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard showed amazing powers of recovery to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, proving to the world why he has been touted as the next big thing in men’s tennis since the beginning of his professional career.

Jannik Sinner’s tale of redemption at Wimbledon

Coming back from a deflating loss is one of the hardest things in sport as well as in life. Most fans and experts assumed that Jannik Sinner would take a long time to recover from the heartbreaking defeat at Roland-Garros. But great players think and behave differently, and that is what sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.

Sinner went into Wimbledon with the dejection of the French Open final looming at the back of his mind. He came through to the Round of 16 unscathed and was even playing like his usual dominating self, but Grigor Dimitrov came up against him in the pre-quarters, and for the first time the Italian top seed looked lost for answers. Dimitrov had taken a two-set lead, but then came an unfortunate injury in the third set that forced him to retire, handing Sinner a huge reprieve.

Sinner then recovered his form in the following matches to storm into the final. But there awaited him arch-rival Alcaraz, who had reached his third straight Wimbledon final. Sinner wasn’t deterred, though, and had a different ending in mind. He lost the first set but, unperturbed, started to dominate play from the baseline and won the next three sets, ultimately clinching his first Wimbledon crown.

Sinner engineered his own tale of redemption by beating Alcaraz soon after that disappointing loss at Roland-Garros, marking another memorable moment from the year that shall be remembered for his ability to reflect and learn from his mistakes and conquer his demons, indeed a hallmark of true greatness.

Cousins Vacherot and Rinderknech scripting history in Shanghai

This year’s edition of the Shanghai Masters was special for many reasons. Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot are tennis pros who had been struggling to find their footing in the competitive tennis world for a few years, having failed to make much of an impact.

However, sport can be a huge leveller, and this year the two cousins found themselves facing each other in the Shanghai Masters final. Rinderknech had a fabulous tournament, having defeated Alexander Zverev, Jiri Lehecka, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Daniil Medvedev en route to the final, while Vacherot also had an impressive run and beat Alexander Bublik, Tomáš Machác, Tallon Griekspoor, Holger Rune, and the legendary Novak Djokovic on the way.

The final was ultimately won by Vacherot, who ended up winning in three sets, though it was an extraordinary display from the two cousins, who were ranked far below the top-ranked players they defeated along the way. It was indeed a dream run for Rinderknech and Vacherot, one that would have given both a massive shot of confidence for upcoming events.

Amanda Anisimova’s amazing year on the WTA Tour

Amanda Anisimova made her debut in the WTA Tour main draw back in 2017 as a prodigious talent. Even in her early years, the powerful American produced top performances against the best players on the tour. However, she has since struggled to live up to the massive potential she showed early on, with mental health issues eventually forcing her to take a break from tennis in 2023.

She has returned to professional tennis now, looking rejuvenated and much improved. 2025 has been her best year yet, with the 24-year-old having reached two Grand Slam finals this time around — Wimbledon and the US Open — and having won two WTA tournaments in Doha and Beijing. Anisimova also reached the semi-final of the year-ending WTA Finals.

Having seemingly put her struggles behind her, Anisimova has shown her levels on the tour this year. She might not have crossed the finishing line in the Grand Slams, but she has shown consistency and the ability to win tournaments, ending the season on a career-high world ranking of fourth.

For her remarkable season, Anisimova was nominated for the WTA Player of the Year and the Most Improved Player of the Year awards, the second of which she won. Her growth and improvement have been an absolute joy to watch, and we hope she can take it further in the coming year.

Elena Rybakina ending a difficult year on a high

Elena Rybakina has had a rough year, having performed relatively poorly at the Slams and dropped down the rankings. However, she showed massive improvement towards the end to qualify for the WTA Finals, and what followed was nothing short of a miracle.

While there can be no doubt that Rybakina is an excellent player who can beat anyone on her day, her inconsistency has let her down on several occasions. In addition, the Kazakh was under a lot of scrutiny due to her coaching situation. After former coach Stefano Vukov was suspended by the WTA due to a breach of the code of conduct, she teamed up with the legendary Goran Ivanisevic in November last year, but the two parted ways in January; Ivanisevic resigned after her exit from the Australian Open.

Rybakina was having a fairly average season, having won only one WTA title — in Strasbourg — and not even making the quarter-finals of any of the Grand Slams. However, with Vukov returning to the fold, her performances started to improve. She won the Ningbo Open in China and ended up qualifying for the WTA Finals, where she went undefeated and beat Aryna Sabalenka in the final to lift the title.

After a difficult season due to many distractions, Rybakina finally ended the year on a high, beating the top-ranked player and winning a major title. This could be viewed as a sort of redemption for Rybakina, who will hope that these late-stage exploits propel her to achieving her true potential.