Canadian Victoria Mboko was voted rookie of the year on the WTA circuit on Monday, becoming the fourth Canadian to receive this distinction, after Carling Bassett (1983), Eugenie Bouchard (2013) and Bianca Andreescu (2019).
Mboko, a Canadian aged just 19, notably went from outside the top 300 to the top 20 in the world, during a remarkable season during which she notably beat four Grand Slam tournament champions in singles and won the National Bank of Montreal Open.
She also won a WTA title in Hong Kong in November, had four consecutive ITF Tour titles earlier this year and reached the third round of the French Open.
Last week, she was named one of the five future stars of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and was recently received by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Among the other players recognized Monday was Aryna Sabalenka, who won her second consecutive WTA Tour player of the year title, receiving nearly 80 percent of the votes from a panel of journalists after winning the U.S. Open, reaching the finals of two other Grand Slam tournaments and finishing the season at No. 1 in the world rankings.
Sabalenka joined the American Serena Williams and the Polish Iga Swiatek among the players who have won this title two years in a row over the last 25 years.
Sabalenka, a 27-year-old Belarusian, dominated women’s tennis in 2025 in wins (63-12), titles (four) and finals played (nine), and she set a tour record by winning $15 million in purses. She spent the entire year at number one in the WTA rankings.
Sabalenka was a finalist against American Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January and against American Coco Gauff at the French Open in June. Additionally, she reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in July before losing to American Amanda Anisimova, and she won her fourth Grand Slam singles title by successfully defending her title at Flushing Meadows in September, ultimately defeating Anisimova in the final.
For her part, Anisimova was voted the most improved player after reaching her first two Grand Slam finals at the All England Club, where she was runner-up to Swiatek, and in New York. She reached three more finals, including winning the WTA 1000 series titles in Doha and Beijing.
The 24-year-old American player finished 2024 ranked 36e place in the rankings and, after entering the top 10, she rose to fourth place in the world at the end of that season. Anisimova was also nominated for player of the year.
This season capped a meteoric rise for Anisimova, who had taken a break in 2023, saying she had “struggled with mental health issues” for almost a year.
Other winners on Monday included Belinda Bencic, who was named the most successful comeback player of the year, and Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, who were named the doubles team of the year.
Bencic took more than a year away from the tour to give birth to her first child, then won two titles in 2025 and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time. It was his first appearance in the final four of a major tournament since 2019.
For their part, Siniakova and Townsend won the Australian Open and were finalists at the United States Open.
with Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press
- US Open: Anastasia Potapova Dominates Opening Match to Reach Second Round
- Doppel-Pfalzmeisterschaft: WR Speyer, TC Dudenhofen and TC Römerberg Compete
- Canada imposes retaliatory tariffs on $19.9bn of U.S. goods (newsarchyuk.com)
- Honey Shortage Hits Canada as US Tariffs Bite: What Does It Mean for Consumers and Producers? (archyde.com)
