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Wk.44- Land of the Rising Bencic

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Wk.44- Land of the Rising Bencic

Ten years after coming up short in the tournament’s final, and four years after winning Olympic Gold there, Belinda Bencic scrapes the sky once again in Tokyo.


*WEEK 44 CHAMPIONS*

TOKYO, JAPAN (WTA 500; Hard Court Outdoor)

S: Belinda Bencic/SUI def. Linda Noskova/CZE 6-2/6-3

D: Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani (HUN/BRA) def. Anna Danilina/Aleksandra Krunic (KAZ/SRB) 6-1/6-4

GUANGZHOU, CHINA (WTA 250; Hard Court Outdoor)

S: Ann Li/USA def. Lulu Sun/NZL 7-6(6)/6-2

D: Katarzyna Piter/Janice Tjen (POL/INA) def. Eudice Chong/Liang En-shuo (HKG/TPE) 3-6/6-3 [10-5]

Queretaro, Mexico (WTA 125; Red Clay Outdoor)

S: Sara Bejlek/CZE def. Katrina Scott/USA 6-2/6-1

D: Alicia Herrero Linana/Valeriya Strakhova (ESP/UKR) def. Marian Gomez Pezuela Cano/Varvara Lepchenko (MEX/USA) 7-5/6-2

Rovereto, Italy (WTA 125; Hard Court Indoor)

S: Oksana Selekhmeteva/RUS def. Lucrezia Stefanini/ITA 6-1/6-1

D: Jesika Maleckova/Miriam Skoch (CZE/CZE) def. Silvia Ambrosio/Aurora Zantedeschi (ITA/ITA) 6-0/4-6 [10-4]

Florianopolis, Brazil (WTA 125; Rec Clay Outdoor)

S: Julia Grabher/AUT def. Carole Monnet/FRA 3-6/6-4/6-0

D: Ekaterine Gorgodze/Irene Burillo Escorihuela (GEO/ESP) def. Carole Monnet/Sada Nahimana (FRA/BDI) 6-1/6-4

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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Belinda Bencic/SUI

…though she surely has played the long game where her return to tennis after having a baby is concerned, Bencic has sprinkled some great results all across the year-long stretch since the motherhood era of her career kicked off last October.

After playing her last match before going on maternity leave in September 2023, Bencic delivered a baby girl in April ’24. By late October of last year, she was back with racket in hand. After playing three events and a BJK Cup tie win, she ended her season in December with a 125 title run.

When she kicked off her ’25 season (on December 28 & 29) at the United Cup in Week 1, Bencic was ranked #487. On December 30, the updated rankings release saw her at #489. With her title run this weekend in Tokyo, she’ll be at #11 on Monday with a week remaining in the WTA “regular season,” about 200 ranking points out of the Top 10.

Over the ten months in between, Bencic put up an early eyebrow-raiser, reaching the Round of 16 at the AO in her first major in a year and a half. A title run in Abu Dhabi came immediately afterward, then an Indian Wells QF. She reached the 4th Round on the clay in Madrid, then a slam SF on the Wimbledon grass. The Swiss’ hardcourt summer was a slow one, but she’s rebounded well during the Asian swing, putting up a 9-3 mark and over the past two weeks showing her resilience in a series of three-set, often three-hours long, matches.

In Tokyo, after a straight sets win over Varvara Gracheva, Bencic rallied from a set and 5-3 down vs. Karolina Muchova, saving a MP in the 3rd, then won another three-setter in the SF vs. Sofia Kenin. Against Linda Noskova in the final, Bencic’s level of play was still rising as she had her easiest day of the week, winning 2 & 3 to claim career title #10.

Of course, even reaching double-digits in tour titles doesn’t make this Bencic’s most everlasting trip to Tokyo. That’d be 2021, when she won singles Gold and doubles Silver in the Olympics there.

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RISERS: Lulu Sun/NZL and Linda Noskova/CZE

…kudos to Sun for fairly well turning around a season-after campaign (she started ’25 at 1-8) that looked like a disaster in the making as recently as this summer, when her Top 50 standing (largely attained because of her ’25 Wimbledon QF) dissolved into thin air after SW19 and she’d dropped nearly 100 spots by the end of the U.S. Open, though it was in New York where she at least notched her first win in a major since her London run.

Since then, the New Zealander has gone a combined 15-3, winning a 125 title and reaching the semis at another, and then this week playing her way into a tour-level final (her first since Monterrey in August of last year) in Guangzhou after qualifying and then posting wins over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Wang Yafan, Caty McNally and Claire Liu. Sun couldn’t complete a sweep of the week, losing the final to Ann Li, but her overall record this season now has a far more respectable look (she’s 32-26) than seemed remotely possible a few months ago.

With a ranking of #116, though, after withdrawing from this coming week’s tour-level event in Chennai after reaching the Guangzhou final, she’s probably a good candidate to participate in several of the remaining late-year 125 challengers on the schedule in order to get her ranking in a better position for the start of the ’26 season.

Meanwhile, when the U.S. Open ended, Noskova was ranked just inside the Top 30 after her 3rd Round run at Flushing Meadows was ended by countrywoman Karolina Muchova.

But the 20-year old Czech has been one of the big-time movers in the 4Q since the start of the Asian swing, during which she reached two finals (in Beijing and this week in Tokyo), surpassed Muchova as the CZE #1 and will be at a career-best #13 on Monday.

Noskova’s Tokyo run was both a good and fortunate one, as she got a win over McCartney Kessler, but also a retirement from Anna Kalinskaya (after sweeping the first seven games of the match vs. the Hordette) in the QF and a SF walkover from Elena Rybakina (who’d already done all she came to town to do, but had to give a “reason” for an early exit — she chose a back injury).

Noskova went on to come up short in the final vs. Belinda Bencic, a result which highlights one of the significant things missing (so far) from the Czech’s climb up the rankings: titles. Noskova has reached three WTA singles finals this year, but wasn’t able to win any of them.

She’s now 1-5 in career tour-level finals, which is incidentally the same hard-luck career WTA final mark of the current CZE #2, Muchova.

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SURPRISE: Ann Li/USA

…somehow, maybe because she tends to get lost in the sea of U.S. women who’ve posted good results in recent years, it always feels “surprising” (even if it shouldn’t) that Li has reached as many tour finals as she has since the start of the 2021 season. After this week’s run, a title-winning one, in Guangzhou the 25-year old Pennsylvanian has reached six WTA singles finals these past five seasons.

Wins over Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, Camila Osorio, Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Zhang Shuai pushed Li into her *third* final just this season (the six players with more all currently reside in the Top 10), which she won 7-6/6-2 over Lulu Sun to claim her second crown at tour level.

Li jumps all the way up to a career-best #33 and now looks like a decent bet to be seeded this January in Melbourne. She had her best career slam run the last time out, reaching the Round of 16 at the U.S. Open (helped along by an upset of fellow Week 44 champ Belinda Bencic in the 2nd Rd.).

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VETERAN: Julia Grabher/AUT

…Grabher’s best season likely came in 2023, when she reached her career high ranking (#54), made her MD debut at three majors and reached her maiden tour-level final (Rabat). But that season ended late in the summer with a wrist injury that required surgery that kept her out for six months.

Ever since getting her bearings again after a spring ’24 return, the now 29-year old Austrian has been putting up results with something of a vengeance on the challenger circuit. Since last September, she’s reached seven ITF finals (winning four, including going 3-3 in ’25 finals) and, with her title this weekend in Florianopolis, has matched her biggest career win with her second 125 crown. She’s put up a career-high 57 match wins at all levels in 2025.

Over the past week in Florianopolis, Grabher defeated 15-year old Brazilian Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva (who last month in Sao Paulo became the first player born in 2010 to record a WTA MD match win) in a 3rd set TB, then followed up with additional victories over Sada Nahimana, Simona Waltert (a 125 champ last week) and Oleksanda Oliynykova (another 3rd set TB) to reach the final, where she handled Pastry Carole Monnet in another three-setter, winning the decider at love.

Grabher will return to the Top 100 on Monday.

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COMEBACKS: Victoria Mboko/CAN and Sofia Kenin/USA

…19-year old Mboko had quite the early season (on the challenger circuit) and summer (winning her maiden tour crown in Montreal), but has had some difficulty dealing with all the sudden change in recent months. She came into Tokyo on a four-match losing streak, having not won a match since her title-winning turn on home soil.

At the start of the week, Mboko has just slipped to CAN #2 thanks to Leylah Fernandez’s title run last week in Osaka. The teenager will reclaim her top national spot after playing her way into the QF (just the second of her WTA career) with wins over countrywoman Bianca Andreescu and Eva Lys.

Mboko ultimately provided the final needed win for Elena Rybakina to qualify for the WTA Finals, falling in two sets to the Kazakh, but her own two-victory week will allow her to tick up one spot in the rankings to #22, setting a new career high.

Also in Tokyo, Kenin put on a semifinal run (just her second of the year, after her RU in Charleston) that accounts for her first multi-MD match winning event since the former RG finalist reached the 3rd Round in Paris this spring. Though she’s managed to hang around in the Top 35 since April, she’d come into the week sporting a 3-8 mark in her last eleven contests.

Kenin posted wins over Moyuka Uchijima, Wakana Sonobe (the teenager took her to a 3rd set TB) and Ekaterina Alexandrova. To get her second ’25 Top 10 win, Kenin had to save four MP against the Russian.

Kenin fell in the semis in another three-setter to Belinda Bencic, losing to the Swiss vet for the first time in three career meetings.

The week likely (you never know, with a lot of 125 events on the schedule, the end of the regular WTA season doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the year for even some fairly highly-ranked players) will prevent Kenin, now 28-24 overall on the year, from having her third under-.500 win/loss season in the last four. She lost more than she won in both ’22 and ’24.

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FRESH FACES: Sara Bejlek/CZE and Oksana Selekhmeteva/RUS

…another week, another Crusher champion. Not Noskova, but Bejlek.

The 19-year old Czech became the first player to claim a third 125 title in ’25, winning the inaugural Queretaro tournament in Mexico on Sunday.

#1-seed Bejlek got past the likes of Usue Arconada, Gabriela Lee, Selena Janicijevic and Martina Colmegna to reach the final, where she defeated Katrina Scott 2 & 1. Bejlek is on a 12-match undefeated run at the 125 challenger level, but — memo to the WTA and others — she does *not* have an active “12-match winning streak” because she gave her opponent a walkover in the Mallorca QF two weeks ago (interrupting what was a seven-match win streak).

The title run will lift #101 Bejlek back into the Top 100 to a new career high of #84. The Czech is now 11-3 in career pro finals, 4-0 in 125 events and 7-3 on the ITF circuit.

In Rovereto (ITA), 22-year old Hordette Selekhmeteva picked up her second 125 crown since the end of the U.S. Open, where she made her New York MD debut as a qualifier just two months ago.

Selekhmeteva notched wins over Barbora Palicova, Silvia Ambrosio, Anna-Lena Friedsam, Susan Bandecchi and Lucrezia Stefanini in a 6-1/6-1 final.

16-3 in her last nineteen matches, Selekhmeteva will make her Top 100 debut on Monday.

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ITF PLAYERS: Mimi Xu/GBR and Petra Marcinko/CRO

…in Wrexham (ENG), 18-year old Xu swept the singles and doubles titles in the week’s $100K challenger there, defeating 16-year old fellow Brit Mika Stojsavljevic 6-3/7-5 in the final.

It’s the second pro single title for Xu (she has six WD wins), who reached the junior slam semis at the U.S. Open (’24) and Wimbledon (’25) the last two seasons.

In Tyler, Texas, 19-year old Marcinko improved to 9-1 in career ITF finals with 6-3/6-0 win in the $100K final over Mary Stoiana (a former NCAA #1 at Texas A&M). It’s the Croatian’s second $100K crown this year (w/ an August win in which she def. Janice Tjen in the final), and pairs with a July title in a 125 event.

A former junior slam champ (’22 AO), Marcinko’s week made 2025 her first 50-win campaign as a pro. She’ll rise to #116, just off her career high of #113.

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JUNIOR STAR: Jeline Vandromme/BEL

…as the season has worn on, the 17-year old Belgian has become quite the junior talking point. Since winning the pre-AO tune-up event in Traralgon, Vandromme has gone on to be crowned the U.S. Open girls’ champ and claim four titles on the ITF pro curcuit, at one point reeling off 17 straight wins in challengers.

In Chengdu, the Waffle closed out her junior experience by winning the season-ending championship at the Junior Finals, going 5-0 on the week in both round robin and knock-out action. After a win over Hannah Klugman in the semis, Vandromme outlasted Kristina Penickova (who she’d also defeated in RR play) in a 4-6/7-6(5)/7-5 final.

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DOUBLES: Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani, HUN/BRA

…Babos & Stefani’s title run in Tokyo has placed them square in the middle (on top, really, though not alone there) of the best season numbers posted by any doubles duos and/or players this season.

Playing in their second final in two weeks, and third this 4Q (after a win in Sao Paulo, and loss in Ningbo), the #4-seeded duo finished off the week with a 1 & 4 win in the title match over #3-seeds Anna Danilina (in her tour-leading eighth final) & Aleksandra Krunic. They’d previously won three MTBs en route to the final, defeating Mihalikova/Nicholls, Dabrowski/Kenin and #1-seeds Perez/Townsend.

The title ties both Babos (w/ career title #29) and Stefani (#13) for the tour individual season lead with four titles each, matching the ’25 takes (so far) of Sara Errani, Jasmine Paolini, Erin Routliffe, Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, as well as equaling the WTA-best five finals (w/ identical 4-1 marks) of the Errani/Paolini combo.

Stefani has gone 10-1 in her last eleven tour finals over the past three years, winning the four titles with Babos, as well as half a dozen more with six different partners.

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WHEELCHAIR: Jiske Griffioen/NED

…with the Wheelchair Masters just around the corner in Huzhou (which will be played, oddly, on clay this year), the biggest event of the week was a Series 2 in Fleury les Aubrais (FRA).

40-year old world #8 Griffioen claimed the title with a 7-5/6-7(5)/6-4 win over 23-year old Dutch countrywoman Jinte Bos (#13), finally taking home her first singles title this season in her fifth ’25 final appearance (third since the end of the U.S. Open). It’s Griffioen’s first singles crown on hard court since 2023.

Bos won the doubles alongside Marcarena Cabrillana.

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1. Tokyo QF – Belinda Bencic def. Karolina Muchova

…3-6/7-5/7-5. Bencic has been October’s marathon woman, playing here in what was her third three-hour affair in four outings (she’d had none in ’25 before this stretch).

The Swiss rallied from a set and 5-3 down vs. Muchova, while the Czech climbed out of a 0-3 hole in the 3rd to hold a MP on serve at 5-4. Bencic broke serve on her third BP in the game, then finished of a sweep off the final three games of the match.

It’s Muchova’s second match lost this season after holding a MP, just one off the season’s most by a player in tour-level MD matches (3 by Sofia Kenin, who this week also *won* her third this year from MP *down*) in ’25.

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2. Tokyo 2nd Rd. – Elena Rybakina def. Leylah Fernandez

…6-4/6-3. Needing two wins to qualify for the WTA Finals, Rybakina wasn’t given a “gimme” to start, facing off with last weekend’s Osaka champ Fernandez, who upset Rybakina this summer in Washington after the Kazakh led by a set and 5-3, and had won their last two meetings (w/ Cincinnnati ’24).

Echoing their last match-up, Rybakina couldn’t serve out the 1st set at 5-3, but this time broke the Canadian in the next game to take the opener. Up 3-0 in the 2nd, Rybakina later saved three BP to avoid going back on serve, taking a 4-1 lead and going on to win in straights.

One down, one to go.

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3. Tokyo QF – Elena Rybakina def. Victoria Mboko

…6-3/7-6(4). Two down, and no more to go (until she arrives in Riyadh).

Rybakina completed her October qualifying dash with a straight sets win over Mboko, climbing from #9 at the start of the week to #6 in the super-tight final Race standings in a matter of days. With a 9-2 Asian swing that ended with this match (her work complete, she withdrew before her SF match vs. Linda Noskova), Rybakina is set to play in her third straight WTA Finals.

She’s gone 1-2 in both occasions in the WTAF, not yet having advanced out of round robin play.

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4. Tokyo QF – Sofia Kenin def. Ekaterina Alexandrova

…6-0/2-6/7-6(3). With contenders (including Tokyo finalists Bencic and Noskova) bunching up behind #10 Alexandrova just outside the Top 10, the Hordette had a 5-2 3rd set lead vs. Kenin in what will likely prove to be Alexandrova’s final match of 2025, the best overall season of her career.

Not all things end well, though. Alexandrova failed to convert three MP in game 8, then a fourth (on serve) in game 9. Kenin put away a 7-3 TB win to advance.

Of course, it’s always a “fun” practice to peruse the social media post threads after a match like this (or, really, almost any WTA match).

You know the drill: first you get the result, then a comment from a gambler who lost money on a bet who then accuses the losing player of match fixing, then is made fun of by another poster for betting on a player that they say is so “unreliable.” The losing bettor then argues back about how no one asked them for a comment, then is joined in the mix by a third party who jumps in to say the person who made fun of the poor gambler who lost money of actually being a “loser” himself (only in life), and eventually insinuates that he should kill themself. Ah, the alternate “circle of life” of a WTA post-match.

And… scene.

Also of note: it’s amusing to realize that if/when tennis is ever involved in a gambling scandal (see the NBA this week), the sport’s powers that be and their enablers will surely remain silent when it is pointed out that the situation was entirely predictable since they’ve gotten into bed with the whole gambling apparatus and, quite frankly, more than deserve whatever bad one day comes from it all.

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5. Tokyo Final – Belinda Bencic def. Linda Noskova

…6-2/6-3. Ten years after she finished as the runner-up (to Aga Radwanska) in the tournament, Bencic finally becomes their fifth Swiss champion in Tokyo.

The other five Swiss winners were all named Martina, as in Hingis. The original Swiss Miss won in 1997, ’99, ’00, ’02 and ’07 (as was also a finalist in 1998, ’01 and ’06).

She was elsewhere this weekend, though…

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6. Guangzhou Final – Ann Li def. Lulu Sun

…7-6(6)/6-2. The Bannerettes’ collective numbers just keep growing, as Li becomes the *eighth* different tour-level singles champion in 2025, matching the number of unique winners the group had last season, a total which had been the most by the U.S. in any year since 2000. The only nation to have more different winnners since (at least) 2007 was Russia’s nine in 2010.

As for 2025, the eight different Bannerette winners doubles the total (4) from the nation (RUS) with second-most. No other nation has produced more than two this year.

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7. Tokyo 1st Rd. – Victoria Mboko def. Bianca Andreescu

…6-3/6-3. While Mboko lost the CAN #1 spot to Leylah Fernandez at the start of the week, with this loss Andreescu (10-12 in ’25) falls from #172 to outside the Top 220.

With Leylah Fernandez’s 2nd Round loss to Elena Rybakina, Mboko’s time as the CAN #2 thus lasted just one week.

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8. Guangzhou Final – Katarzyna Piter/Janice Tjen def. Eudice Chong/Liang En-shuo

…3-6/6-3 [10-5]. Well, add another career milestone to Tjen’s growing list of 2025 accomplishments, as the Indonesian’s breakout campaign now includes her first career WTA doubles title.

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9. Tokyo 1st Rd. – Maya Joint def. Viktorija Golubic

…1-6/7-6(5)/6-2. The Aussie teenager came in having lost three of four, but rallied to a victory vs. the Swiss vet after trailing by a set and 4-2, then 5-3 in the 2nd set TB.

Come January, #32 Joint (the new AUS #1 as the week began, meaning Dasha Kasatkina won’t end her first season under the Aussie flag as the national #1) is in line to be seeded at a major for the first time in her home slam.

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10. Rovereto 125 1st Rd. – Tyra Grant def. Maria Timofeeva

…6-3/6-3. You can’t tell the WTA players (well, at least their nation of representation) without a program drawsheet.

The listing of this match-up would have looked quite different a few months ago, as Bannerette-turned-Italian Grant takes out Hordette-newly-officially-Uzbeki Timofeeva, who arrived just days after winning a $75K title in her final “flagless” event.

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11. Guangzhou 1st Rd. – Claire Liu def. Alex Eala

…2-6/6-4/6-4. Eala drops her fourth straight match. The Filipina’s breakout season is ending rather quietly, as she’s gone 7-6 since taking her biggest career title in the Guadalajara 125.
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12. Tokyo 2nd Rd. – Sofia Kenin def. Wakana Sonobe

…3-6/6-1/7-6(2). Having turned professional earlier this month, 17-year old Sonobe lost to Naomi Osaka a week earlier in Osaka, but notched her second career tour-level win in Tokyo with a 1st Round victory over Nikola Bartunkova.

She challenged Kenin for another, taking the 1st set and then forcing a deciding TB after saving a pair of MP on serve at 5-4 in the 3rd. Kenin prevailed, but Sonobe will be back.

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13. Tokyo 1st Rd. – Karolina Muchova def. Marketa Vondrousova

…6-2/1-0 ret. Vondrousova has completed just one match since her win over Elena Rybakina in the U.S. Open Round of 16, and has gone 0-2 (w/ both losses to Muchova) during the Asian swing.
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14. Florianopolis 125 SF – Julia Grabher def. Oleksandra Oliynykova

…3-6/7-6(4)/7-6(1). En route to the title, Grabher staged a 3rd set rally vs. Oliynykova, then had to fight the Ukrainian off down the stretch.

The Austrian had trailed 4-2, but then saw Oliynykova save one MP at 5-4, then two more from 40/15 down at 6-5. Grabher was broken and forced into a TB, which she finally won 7-1.

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15. $35K Brisbane AUS Final – Tian Fangran def. Katie Swan

…2–6/7–6(5)/6–1. The 2023 NCAA singles champ (w/ UCLA), Tian wins her fourth pro singles title, her first since the ’23 season.

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16. $15K Monastir TUN Final – Ksenia Efremova def. Masha Lazarenko

…6–3/3–6/6–2. Having completed a J500 girls’ sweep of the s/d titles in Osaka last month, 16-year old Efremova did the same in the $15K challenger in Monastir this week.

The Pastry reached the QF in this year’s junior competition at the U.S. Open, and went 20-1 over the closing months of her ’25 junior season from August through October, winning addtional titles in J300 and J200 events (along w/ the J500) during the stretch.

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HM- $15K Sharm El Sheikh EGY Final – Sun Xinran def. Valeriia Artemeva

…6-1/6-0. Meanwhile, 15-year old Sun becomes the youngest Chinese player to win a pro singles title, taking the crown with a dominant victory in the final in just her fourth pro event.

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1. $75K Hamburg GER Final – Erika Andreeva def. Kaitlin Quevedo

…6-4/6-2. While her sister Mirra saw her WTAF spot (in singles, but she’s still qualified for doubles) slip away this week, Erika won the biggest title of her career in just her second event back after being out with a knee injury since June. She’d had to retire from a match vs. her sister in April due to her knee, then went 0-7 over the following two months before finally pulling herself off tour.

The 21-year old, who reached a pair of 125 finals in 2023 (but went 0-2), won her first singles title since 2021 and biggest ever (her previous three were all $15K events in 2020-21) with a straight sets wins over Spain’s Quevedo.

Andreeva was ranked as high as #65 last fall, but came into the week at #334. She’ll climb to #264 after (so far) playing just 28 matches in 2025 (going 9-19).

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2. $15K Hilton Head Island USA Final – Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann def. Annika Penickova

…6-1/2-6/6-4. In a match-up of 16-year old Bannerettes, Drenser-Hagmann wins the title in her first pro event appearance, qualifying and sweeping through the main draw for seven straight victories.
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Something that persists to this day, Gene Simmons *always* — sometimes even when still in costume — took himself and the oft-kitschy business of Kiss *so* seriously. Ace Frehley did not, most famously so (assuredly with a little “help” — cough, cough — before the cameras rolled) in the band’s late night Halloween interview with Tom Snyder at the height of their popularity.

Those moments were also an early sign of how/why Simmons and Paul Stanley would later push Frehley and Peter Criss (also enjoying the moment w/ Snyder) out of the band and run the whole operation as a two-headed enterprise, until a temporary original-4 reunion a decade and a half later.


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*WTA SINGLES TITLES in 2020s*
25 – 1/2/8/6/5/3 = Iga Swiatek
16 – 3/2/0/3/4/4 = Aryna Sabalenka
10 – 0/1/0/4/3/2 = Coco Gauff
9 – 1/0/1/2/3/2 = Elena Rybakina
8 – 1/5/2 = Ash Barty (ret.)
8 – 0/3/2/2/1/0 = Barbora Krejcikova
8 – 0/0/1/2/2/3 = Jessie Pegula
6 – 0/1/1/2/0/2 = BELINDA BENCIC
6 – 0/2/2/0/2/0 = Dasha Kasatkina
6 – 0/1/1/1/2/1 = Alona Ostapenko
[hard court]
13 – Sabalenka (3/1/0/2/4/3)
13 – Swiatek (0/1/5/3/2/2)
8 – Gauff (0/0/0/4/3/1)
6 – Barty (1/3/2 ret)
5 – BENCIC (0/1/0/2/0/2)
5 – Fernandez (0/1/1/1/0/2)
5 – Kasatkina (0/2/2/0/1/0)
5 – Kontaveit (0/4/1/0 ret)
5 – Krejcikova (0/1/2/2/0/0)
5 – Pegula (0/0/1/2/1/1)
5 – Rybakina (1/0/0/1/2/1)

*MOST DIFFERENT U.S. CHAMPIONS in SEASON (since 1998)*

=1999 (8)=

S.Williams,V.Williams,Capriati,Davenport,Frazier,Morariu,Rubin,Seles
=2000 (8)=

S.Williams,V.Williams,Capriati,Davenport,Raymond,Rubin,Seles,Shaughnessy
=2024 (8)=

Gauff,Kessler,Navarro,Collins,Stephens,Keys,Stearns,Pegula
=2025 (8)=

Anisimova,Gauff,Jovic,Kessler,Keys,Li,Navarro,Pegula
=2001 (7)=

S.Williams,V.Williams,Capriati,Davenport,Seles,Shaughnessy,Tu
=2002 (7)=

S.Williams,V.Williams,Capriati,Craybas,Raymond,Rubin,Seles
=2016 (7)=

S.Williams,V.Williams,Falconi,Keys,McHale,Stephens,Vandeweghe

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2025*
8 – Aryna Sabalenka (4-4)
6 – Jessie Pegula (3-3)
5 – Amanda Anisimova (2-3)
4 – Iga Swiatek (3-1)
4 – Coco Gauff (2-2)
4 – Ekaterina Alexandrova (1-3)
3 – McCartney Kessler (2-1)
3 – Elise Mertens (2-1)
3 – ANN LI (1-2)
3 – LINDA NOSKOVA (0-3)

*2025 FINALISTS BY COUNTRY*
27 (14 wins) – USA (LI)
11 (5) – RUS
8 (4) – BLR
6 (2) – CZE (NOSKOVA)
5 (3) – POL
4 (2) – ROU
3 (3) – CAN
3 (2) – BEL,SUI(BENCIC)
3 (1) – COL,ITA,UKR
2 (2) – AUS,FRA,KAZ
2 (1) – DEN,LAT
2 (0) – JPN
1 (1) – GER
1 (0) – CHN,HUN,INA,NZL(SUN),PHI,SRB

*2025 QUALIFIERS IN FINALS*
Brisbane – Polina Kudermetova, RUS
Merida – Emiliana Arango, COL
Bogota – Katarzyna Kawa, POL
London – Tatjana Maria, GER – W
Rosmalen – Gabriela Ruse, ROU
Berlin – Wang Xinyu, CHN
Eastbourne – Alex Eala, PHI
Cleveland – Sorana Cirstea, ROU – W
Osaka – Tereza Valentova, CZE
Guangzhou – LULU SUN, NZL

*CAREER WTA FINALS – active*
83 – Venus Williams
55 – Caroline Wozniacki
41 – Victoria Azarenka
39 – Aryna Sabalenka
34 – Karolina Pliskova
30 – Iga Swiatek
22 – Elina Svitolina
21 – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
21 – Elena Rybakina
20 – BELINDA BENCIC
20 – Jessie Pegula

*2025 OLDEST WTA SF*
37 – Tatjana Maria, GER (Queen’s)-W
36 – ZHANG SHUAI, CHN (Guangzhou)
35 – Sorana Cirstea, ROU (Osaka)
35 – Sorana Cirstea, ROU (Cleveland)-W
35 – Sorana Cirstea, ROU (Iasi)
34 – Irina-Camelia Begu, ROU (Iasi)-W

*2025 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
4 – TIMEA BABOS, HUN
4 – Sara Errani, ITA
4 – Jasmine Paolini, ITA
4 – Erin Routliffe, NZL
4 – Katerina Siniakova, CZE
4 – LUISA STEFANI, BRA
4 – Taylor Townsend, USA

*CAREER WTA DOUBLES TITLES – active*
36 – Sara Errani
35 – Hsieh Su-Wei
33 – Latisha Chan
32 – Katerina Siniakova
30 – Bethanie Mattek-Sands
29 – TIMEA BABOS
29 – Kristina Mladenovic

*2025 LOW-RANKED WTA SEMIFINALISTS*
#550 Julieta Pareja/USA (Bogota)
#361 Lois Boisson/FRA (Roland Garros)
#228 Nikola Bartunkova/CZE (Guadalajara)
#223 Katarzyna Kawa/POL (Bogota)-RU
#223 CLAIRE LIU/USA (Guangzhou)
#214 Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah/FRA (Sao Paulo)-W
#207 Kaja Juvan/SLO (Hamburg)
[WTA 125]
NR – Rajeshwaran Revathi/IND (Mumbai)
#658 MARTINA COLMEGNA/ITA (Queretaro)
#544 Maria Kozyreva/RUS (Guadalajara)
#535 Aliona Bolsova/ESP (La Bisbal d’Emporda)
#515 Kaja Juvan/SLO (Saint-Malo)-RU
#461 KATRINA SCOTT/USA (Queretaro)-RU

*2025 FIRST-TIME WTA WD CHAMPIONS*
Brisbane – Mirra Andreeva, RUS (17)
Brisbane – Diana Shnaider, RUS (20)
Cluj-Napoca – Magali Kempen, BEL (27)
Cluj-Napoca – Anna Siskova, CZE (23)
Rabat – Maya Joint, AUS (19)
Iasi – Veronika Erjavec, SLO (25)
Iasi – Panna Udvardy, HUN (26)
Montreal – McCartney Kessler, USA (26)
Guangzhou – JANICE TJEN, INA (23)
[mixed GS]
AO – Olivia Gadecki, AUS (22)
WI – Katerina Siniakova, CZE (29)

*2025 – WTA 125 TITLES*
3 – SARA BEJLEK, CZE
2 – Veronika Erjavec, SLO
2 – Dalma Galfi, HUN
2 – Francesca Jones, GBR
2 – Kaja Juvan, SLO
2 – OKSANA SELEKHMETEVA, RUS
2 – Solana Sierra, ARG
2 – Anca Todoni, ROU
2 – Tereza Valentova, CZE

*WORLD JUNIOR FINALS – FINALS*
2015 Xu Shilin/CHN d. Kristina Schmiedlova/SVK
2016 Anna Blinkova/RUS d. Katie Swan/GBR
2017 Marta Kostyuk/UKR d. Kaja Juvan/SLO
2018 Clara Burel/FRA d. Camila Osorio/COL
2019 Diane Parry/FRA d. Daria Snigur/UKR
2020-22 – CANCELLED
2023 Alina Korneeva/RUS d. Sara Saito/JPN
2024 Emerson Jones/AUS d. Mika Stojsavljevic/GBR
2025 Jeline Vandromme/BEL d. Kristina Penickova/USA

Wk.44- Land of the Rising Bencic

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It’s (almost) like we’re becoming a parody of an actual nation…


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I spend a year plotting a mystery novel and then this happens.

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— Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnsonbooks.com) October 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM


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i see you’re doing something online that you have effortlessly done 100,000 times. would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? w

— Jon Bois (@jonbois.bsky.social) October 20, 2025 at 10:38 AM


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All for now.

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