Aryna Sabalenka Reveals Biggest Lesson of 2025 Season Which Helped Her Defend US Open Crown

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka clinched four trophies from nine finals, including the US Open.

Aryna Sabalenka Reveals Biggest Lesson of 2025 Season Which Helped Her Defend US Open Crown

Aryna Sabalenka (Image via X/The Tennis Letter)

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Two Grand Slam final defeats this season taught Aryna Sabalenka that reaching the title clash of the Majors doesn’t mean that the match will always end in her favor. The World No.1 kick-started the season in an emphatic fashion, reaching the Australian Open final only to suffer a three-set defeat at the hands of Madison Keys.

Sabalenka was chasing a three-peat at the Melbourne Slam. She was once again denied her fourth Major at the French Open, this time by Coco Gauff.

Sabalenka is enjoying the off-season and recently visited the Maldives with her boyfriend, Georgios Frangulis. She also visited Brazil and met Frangulis’ family and friends. While in Brazil, she told ESPN Brasil about her biggest learnings of the 2025 season.

I learnt that if you make the final, it does not mean that you are going to win the tournament. It’s obvious! It’s not very smart to say because it is so obvious. Yeah, you are in the finals, but it does not mean that you are going to win the tournament. But every time I would make the finals at the beginning of the season, I would think, things are going my way.

Sabalenka once again failed to reach the Wimbledon final, losing in the semifinal to eventual runner-up Amanda Anisimova. These defeats helped her recognize her mistakes, and so when she entered New York for the US Open, she ended her campaign by taking her revenge on Anisimova in the final.

I am going to win the title, but then I was losing a lot of finals because my expectations were too high, and the pressure was too high when things were not going well. So I think I have learned how to still go into the final hungry without knowing what is going to happen and finding my way through tough challenges each time. I think that is why I was able to lift the US Open trophy, because my mentality was slightly different from the first two finals of the Grand Slams.

Aryna Sabalenka added

It was her first Major of the season following last year’s US Open, where she beat home favorite Jessica Pegula. After winning this year’s US Open, she pocketed the biggest prize money that has been offered in Grand Slam history ($5 million).

Aryna Sabalenka won four titles in the 2025 season

After losing the Australian Open final, Aryna Sabalenka had disappointing campaigns in the Middle East swing. But when the North American hard-court swing started, she ended up playing two finals.

Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka (Image via X/Roland Garros)

She first suffered defeat in the Indian Wells final at the hands of Mirra Andreeva, but was successful in clinching the Miami Open by defeating home favorite Jessica Pegula, winning her first singles title on the North American hard-court swing.

On the European clay swing, the 27-year-old played three finals. Jelena Ostapenko denied her win in the Stuttgart Open final, but she was successful in emerging victorious at the Madrid Open by defeating Coco Gauff.

At the Italian Open, Sabalenka failed to go past the quarterfinals, losing the match to 2024 Paris Olympics gold medalist Qinwen Zheng. Sabalenka reached her career’s first French Open final, where Gauff came from a set down to deny her the title.

She failed to defend her Cincinnati Open title. After defending her US Open crown, she lost to eventual runner-up Pegula in the Wuhan Open semifinal. Later, Sabalenka progressed to one more final.

In the WTA Finals, Sabalenka won all her round-robin matches, but she missed the title to Elena Rybakina, who ended up pocketing tennis history’s biggest prize money, an unprecedented $5.235m. For the second consecutive time, Sabalenka ended the season as the No.1 player.

Also read: Elena Rybakina Decides to Postpone Pre-Season Tour After a Hectic 2025 Season