Of all the compelling storylines in a memorable 2025, one of the trends that stood out was tennis stars returning to previous heights – or flourishing as an even better version of themselves.
Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek may have cemented their positions as the sport’s spearheads, but the resurgence of talented tourmates means more challenges to their supremacy as a new season begins.
It also means there are more names in the conversation when it comes to who can make a mark at Australian Open 2026.
Amanda Anisimova
A prodigious junior, Anisimova broke through to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, at just 17 years of age, at Roland Garros in 2019 – the same year she peaked at world No.21.
Personal heartbreak and burnout derailed her, but after a successful comeback season in 2024, the American attained even greater heights in a spectacular 2025.
PODCAST: Anisimova’s “learning process” to becoming a superstar
WTA 1000 titles in Doha and Beijing came either side of back-to-back major finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. Playing in her first Slam semifinal in six years at SW19, she upset world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, and avenged her Wimbledon final loss to Iga Swiatek by beating the Pole in the US Open quarters.
She capped the year with a semifinal run at the WTA Finals, and will enter Australian Open 2026 as a top-five star intent on hoisting the Grand Slam silverware she came close to attaining in 2025.
Felix Auger-Aliassime
Four years ago at the US Open, Auger-Aliassime hit his previous zenith. That 2021 campaign in New York saw him reach his first Slam semifinal, in between quarterfinals at 2021 Wimbledon and Australian Open 2022. Later in 2022, he hit a career-high ranking of world No.6.
The young Canadian star then seemed to plateau, or even regress, as his potent, athletic game lost some of its sting. In 14 consecutive major tournaments after AO 2022, he failed to reach the quarterfinal stage at any of them and half of those campaigns ended in first-round losses.
Yet everything changed at the 2025 US Open. There he upset third-ranked Alexander Zverev in a first-strike tennis masterclass, en route to his first major semifinal in four years.
He competed at the US Open ranked 27th, but over the final three months of the season he won so much – highlights included a title in Brussels, a Paris Masters final and a semifinal at the season-ending ATP Finals – that he vaulted into the top five for the first time.
“I think I had glimpses of that [level] in the past. Obviously we think of 2022… but [now] being able to win a lot of matches and playing some matches at a really high level,” he commented at the ATP Finals.
“[It’s] some of the best tennis I've played, for sure.”
Naomi Osaka
We saw some signs of Osaka’s best tennis, too, as she hauled her ranking from as low as world No.61 in March to return to the top 15 by September.
Three 2025 milestones helped the Japanese star on her path to becoming one of women’s tennis’s biggest threats again.
The first was when she dropped down to WTA 125 level and won the Saint Malo event – on clay, no less – for her first singles title of any kind since Australian Open 2021.
The second came in Montreal, when she reached her first WTA 1000 final in three-and-half years, after victories over seeds Liudmila Samsonova, Jelena Ostapenko, Elina Svitolina and Clara Tauson.
The third came at the US Open, where she progressed beyond the third round of a major for the first time in almost five years and ultimately arrived in the semis, coming within a tiebreak of a fifth Grand Slam final.
After playing more matches in a season (50) than any year since 2019, Osaka will return to Melbourne – where she is a two-time champion – with the knowledge she’s capable of going all the way again.
Alexander Bublik
In the back half of 2023, and early 2024, Bublik was flying. He won Halle, came within a set of the Wimbledon quarterfinals, won two more titles in Antwerp and Montpellier, then reached the Dubai final.
By the time he returned to Halle in 2024, he was at a career-high ranking of world No.17.
But he fell in the second round of his title defence there, and into a subsequent funk; from July he began a 22-match stretch during which he lost 18 of them.
That took him through to March 2025, where his ranking had fallen to 82nd and he dropped down the Challenger circuit, in Phoenix, Arizona. He made the final, and unlocked something.
“My coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like, ‘Man, if you play like this, we're just going to be out of tennis, of the conversation by Wimbledon because that's where my points are [remaining to defend],” Bublik revealed at Roland Garros.
“I said, ‘OK, let's go to Vegas’. We enjoy. We change the racquet. We did many things. I said, ‘OK, if it goes, it goes. If not, thank you very much, tennis’, and it worked.”
He recorded his best major result by reaching the Roland Garros quarterfinals, before winning four ATP singles titles – including another triumph in Halle – to soar up the rankings and end 2025 on the cusp of the top 10.
Emma Raducanu
Ranked outside the top 60 this time 12 months ago, Raducanu begins 2026 as the world No.29, all but guaranteeing her an AO seeding when seeds are determined the week of 12 January.
It would mark the first time she has been seeded at a Grand Slam tournament since the 2022 US Open.
That campaign came one year after her fairytale title in New York in 2021, making her the first qualifier in history to become a major champion. She briefly cracked the top 10 in 2022, but since then has been beset by injuries, while also contending with an increasingly deep, strong talent pool in the women’s game.
Last year saw Raducanu begin to re-establish herself as a force on tour. With injury less of a factor, she played 50 matches – by far her highest tally in a single season – and reached her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal in Miami. She was a third-round finisher at three of the four majors, earning her the most match wins at Grand Slam level in one year since 2021.
Back inside the top 30 for the first time since September 2022, she’ll hope to continue her upward trajectory at Melbourne Park, where she is bidding to reach the second week for the first time.