There have been plenty of examples of players tearing up the post-US Open fall swing but failing to carry that momentum into the new season.
In Elena Rybakina’s case, her form in late 2025 signalled a player ready once again to contend for the sport’s very biggest titles.
Already a Wimbledon champion who came very close to collecting a second major crown at Australian Open 2023, Rybakina reminded onlookers just how potent her game can be when her technical gifts and confidence align.
Her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in the Wuhan quarterfinals in early October was the last time she tasted defeat. Rybakina went on to scoop the Ningbo title and reach the Tokyo semifinals, the latter result helping her qualify for the WTA Finals, where she went undefeated in five matches to earn her biggest tournament victory in three-and-a-half years.
After avenging her Wuhan loss to Sabalenka in the final in Riyadh, she earned the highest single pay cheque – more than US $5.23 million – in women’s sports history.
Her success at the WTA Finals was built around her serve. She sent down a barrage of aces to finish the season with 516, by far the most of any player in 2025 and the highest single-season ace tally since Karolina Pliskova’s 530 in 2016.
"That's one of the great weapons in modern tennis, that serve of hers,” said Jon Wertheim on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
“People will see that [6-3 7-6(0) win over Sabalenka in the WTA Finals] scoreline, and they'll say, ‘oh she beat Sabalenka in a tiebreaker, that doesn't happen very often’. What happened in the 20 or so minutes before that is worth going back and watching if you have a chance. That serve bailed her out of so many potentially problematic situations.”
Added Roddick: "I do think that Rybakina has the best serve in women's tennis. It seems like when you say [longstanding WTA top three] Gauff and Iga and Sabalenka, and you slot Rybakina into that conversation… none of them want to play her."
Rybakina, on the other hand, seems to relish facing the game’s biggest stars, winning 10 of her past 12 meetings against top-10 opponents and currently enjoying a four-match winning streak against top-five players.
Such dominant form looked far away in the early stages of 2025. She did not reach her first tournament final until May, and slipped as low as world No.13 in July.
Gathering steam since Wimbledon, Rybakina won 28 matches in the last four months of the season, hauled her ranking back inside the top five, and will begin 2026 on an 11-match winning streak.
“All that happened this week, I can bring to the next season,” Rybakina told wtatennis.com at the WTA Finals. “It gives me so much more motivation to work even more because we did good progress in the little blocks between the tournaments. Physically, even when I wasn’t at my best, we did a good job.
“I’ve experienced winning a Slam [at Wimbledon 2022], losing in a final to Aryna [Australian Open 2023] … each match like this brings so much experience and this time it went my way, everything worked.
“I’ll try to carry every positive thing from this tournament into my next big matches.”
Rybakina will be hoping to translate her tour-level success of 2025 into the majors once more, after failing to reach the quarterfinals at her five most recent Grand Slam tournaments.
She came close at AO 2025, losing in three sets to eventual champion Madison Keys in the last 16. She also fell in fourth-round matches at Roland Garros and the US Open to Iga Swiatek and Marketa Vondrousova, respectively, both times in three sets.
Former world No.4 Sam Stosur, speaking on a recent episode of The Tennis, said Rybakina was playing exceptional tennis again and was “back to where we think she belongs” in the top five.
"I always thought of myself as a pretty good reader of a ball toss and serving and stuff like that,” said Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion. “I played her [Rybakina] maybe three times, I think in singles, and every time, I was clueless. I could not read her serve.
“You don't really know where she’s gonna go, because she can hit every spot, whenever she wants really, off the same toss. Very, very hard to read… And then she can really just let loose on return games, as well, because if she's just rolling through service games and feeling good, pressure's off on those return games.
“She's got every weapon and every shot that you could really want in tennis. If she's there, ready to go, she's a real force."
Rybakina, who’s been ranked as high as world No.3, begins 2026 at the Brisbane International – where she’s a former champion – before turning her attention to Melbourne.
Given her form, and history of success in Down Under, don’t be surprised to see this decorated champion go one better than she did at Australian Open 2023.