As top tennis talents turn toward the 2026 Australian Open, this week's WTA rankings refresh hints at the drama to come as the year's first Grand Slam nears.
Following her strong 2026 United Cup showing against world No. 2 Iga Świątek, Team USA favorite Coco Gauff jumped to No. 3, leapfrogging fellow US star No. 4 Amanda Anisimova along the way.
Meanwhile, reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys hit a slight skid, falling two spots to No. 9 after unwavering No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka ousted her from last week's Brisbane Open quarterfinals.
Sabalenka aside, Switzerland's No. 10 Belinda Bencic might have the hottest hand heading into Melbourne, busting into the Top 10 after winning all five of her 2026 United Cup singles matches — including a dominant three-set victory over Poland's Świątek.
Bencic also made history in this week's rankings update, becoming the first returning mother to crack the WTA's top tier since US tennis icon Serena Williams did so in 2021.
"I think it's been a huge goal, maybe a huge ride after the whole comeback, to come back and prove this to myself, that it's possible," Bencic said this week.
How to watch top WTA ranked tennis players this week
Next up for the WTA rankings' elite will be the record-breaking 2026 Australian Open, with the main draw of the season's first Slam kicking off down under on Sunday.
Live coverage from the Melbourne hardcourt will air across ESPN platforms beginning at 7 PM ET on Saturday.
The Australian Open is raising the bar for 2026, with the first Grand Slam of the tennis season boosting its total prize pool to a record $74.9 million — a 16% increase over the 2025 tournament.
Top-finishers in both the women's and men's competitions will now receive checks worth $2.79 million — 19% more than 2025's champions — while a player exiting in the main draw's first round will earn approximately $101,000, a 14% year-over-year increase.
The annual competition has long been a pioneer in promoting equal pay, following the US Open's 1973 move by becoming the second Slam to guarantee a 50-50 breakdown between the WTA and ATP in 2001.
"This 16% increase demonstrates our commitment to supporting tennis careers at every level," said Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley in the governing body's Tuesday announcement. "From boosting qualifying prize money by 55% since 2023 to enhancing player benefits, we're ensuring professional tennis is sustainable for all competitors."
"This investment strengthens tennis's foundation, ensuring the sport's long-term health and commercial growth," added Tiley. "By supporting players at all levels, we're building deeper talent pools and more compelling storylines for fans."
How to watch the 2026 Australian Open
US star and world No. 7 Madison Keys will look to defend her trophy when the main draw of the 2026 Australian Open kicks off at 7 PM ET on Saturday, January 17th.
Live coverage of the season's first Slam will air across ESPN platforms.
Upsets are stealing the show at the 2025 WTA Finals, with world No. 5 Jessica Pegula taking down reigning champion No. 3 Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2 on Sunday before No. 6 Elena Rybakina topped No. 2 Iga Świątek 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 to open Monday's action at the eight-player, season-ending tennis tournament.
Gauff's well-documented serve struggles plagued Sunday's showdown, with the 2025 French Open winner hitting 17 double faults — including three consecutive misses — en route to the second-set tiebreak.
"Coco is a great champion, great competitor, good friend, so it's always tough playing her," Pegula said afterwards. "I don't think there's any secrets with this group of girls here."
Rybakina then continued the streak of WTA Finals upsets by storming past Świątek on Monday morning, winning 12 out of the last 13 games to humble the 2025 Wimbledon champ after Świątek cruised past No. 7 Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2 in Saturday's round-robin group stage opener.
Other top seeds rolled in their first tests, with each four-player group's top two finishers advancing to Friday's semifinals.
No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka dominated No. 8 Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday, with the 2025 US Open winner later saying, "I take this tournament as a regular tournament that I have to win five matches if I want to win the title. So I'm just trying to bring my best tennis and fight for every point."
How to watch the 2025 WTA Finals
Round-robin play continues through Thursday, before the semifinalists battle on Friday for a spot in Saturday's championship match.
All 2025 WTA Finals matches air live on the Tennis Channel.
Tennis governing body finalized its elite 2025 WTA Finals field on Friday, with the sport's eight top-ranked players gearing up to kick off the tournament in Saudi Arabia this weekend, each aiming to claim the the final major trophy of the 2025 season.
World No. 6 Elena Rybakina became the last player to qualify for the Finals, with the 26-year-old Kazakhstani star clinching her spot by reaching the Japan Open semifinals last week — beating out No. 9 Mirra Andreeva in the race to reach Riyadh.
Rybakina joins the previously qualified finalists No. 8 Jasmine Paolini, No. 7 Madison Keys, No. 5 Jessica Pegula, No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, No. 3 Coco Gauff, No. 2 Iga Świątek, and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
Capping a banner year for the States, US stars populate a full half of the end-of-season tournament, with Keys, Pegula, Gauff, and WTA Finals debutant Anisimova comprising the largest US contingent at the competition in more than 20 years.
Gauff enters the round-robin tournament as its reigning champion, with 2023 winner Świątek as the only other title-holder in contention this year.
Where to watch the 2025 WTA Finals
The 2025 WTA Finals start this Saturday and run through November 8th.
Live coverage of the tournament will air on the Tennis Channel.
World No. 3 Coco Gauff won her 11th career WTA title over the weekend, taking down fellow US star No. 5 Jessica Pegula 6-4, 7-5 to become the 2025 Wuhan Open champion on Sunday.
With the victory, Gauff also is the first US player to lift the Wuhan Open trophy since Venus Williams in 2015.
Gauff now holds a perfect 9-0 record in hardcourt tournament finals, lifting her first WTA 1000 trophy of 2025 and claiming her second title of the year alongside her French Open victory in June — all without needing a single third set throughout her five-match run in Wuhan.
"Winning every match in straight sets, I don't know if I've done that before on a title run," the 21-year-old said afterwards. "I just felt like I was really proud of what I accomplished this week, regardless of the result today."
Despite the Sunday stumble, Pegula also saw significant success at the tournament, handing world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka — who won the last three editions of the competition — her first-ever loss in Wuhan on Saturday.
Even more, Pegula clinched the three-set semifinal by snapping Sabalenka's dominant streak of winning 19 straight tiebreaks.
Overall, the weekend furthered a dominant 2025 WTA campaign for US tennis stars, with a US-based athlete featuring in every Grand Slam final this year.
US women also top the current WTA rankings, with Gauff and Pegula joined by No. 4 Amanda Anisimova and No. 7 Madison Keys in the sport's Top 10.
Additionally, those four contenders have all booked spots in the 2025 WTA Finals, guaranteeing that half of the eight-player field will hail from the States when the tennis season's finale kicks off next month.
The Naomi Osaka comeback tour at the 2025 US Open has ended, as the two-time New York Grand Slam champion and world No. 24 star ceded her Thursday semifinal to No. 9 Amanda Anisimova, who battled back to claim the 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 victory.
"Naomi is playing amazing tennis," the 23-year-old said of Osaka's US Open run. "She's back where she belongs. I told her I'm so proud of her after having a baby and playing at this level — it's insane."
With her Thursday win, Anisimova is now the only player to ever defeat Osaka in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, semifinal, or final — ending the Japanese fan-favorite's 13-0 run in the later rounds of tennis's major tournaments.
Anisimova's US Open success is even more impressive considering the result of her first-ever Grand Slam final — a brutal 6-0, 6-0 loss at Wimbledon in July.
In a massive turnaround, Anisimova handed No. 2 Iga Świątek, the 2025 Wimbledon champion, a redemptive straight-set loss in Wednesday's US Open quarterfinals en route to reaching this weekend's championship match.
Anisimova's victory means that a US player has now competed in every women's Grand Slam final dating back to the 2024 US Open, extending the country's championship-match streak to five straight Slams.
With even more history on the line, the US rising star now has a second shot at joining No. 6 Madison Keys and No. 3 Coco Gauff in hoisting a 2025 Grand Slam trophy for the US — a feat not accomplished by any single country since Serena Williams won the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in 2015.
How to watch the 2025 US Open championship match
Just like Keys and Gauff, Anisimova will have to defeat Aryna Sabalenka to claim her own 2025 Grand Slam trophy — with the hard-hitting US finalist holding a 6-3 all-time record against the world No. 1 player, most recently downing the 2024 US Open champion in this year's Wimbledon semifinals.
Anisimova will battle Sabalenka in for the 2025 US Open crown on Saturday, with live coverage of the championship match beginning at 4 PM ET on ESPN.
The 2025 US Open is putting the WTA's best to the test, with some top-ranked players battling in three-set epics in the annual Grand Slam's first round.
World No. 6 Madison Keys suffered the first major upset of the tournament on Monday, committing 89 unforced errors across three hours and 10 minutes of play to fall to Mexico's No. 82 Renata Zarazúa 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 7-5.
No. 3 Coco Gauff also found herself locked in a three-set battle, narrowly defeating Australia's No. 79 Ajla Tomljanović 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 in her own three-hour endurance trial on Tuesday.
"This is the match that I needed," Gauff said afterwards. "I don't think it can get any more stressful than this."
Meanwhile, other top talents have seen smoother rides, with No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Świątek, and No. 4 Jessica Pegula all dispatching their opponents with relative ease.
Fan favorite No. 24 Naomi Osaka also cruised through her first-round matchup against No. 106 Greet Minnen, downing the Belgian in straight sets on Tuesday to meet US star No. 47 Hailey Baptiste on Thursday's second-round court.
A dramatic finish in Wednesday's second-round play also dominated headlines, as popular US contender No. 139 Taylor Townsend — the current world No. 1 doubles player — served Latvia's No. 26 Jeļena Ostapenko a 7-5, 6-1 upset loss in singles play, with the pair's heated post-match exchange causing a stir.
"[Ostapenko] told me I have no class and no education and to see what happens when we get outside the US," Townsend relayed in her on-court interview.
How to watch the 2025 US Open
The US Open's second-round play concludes on Thursday before the third round kicks off on Friday.
Live coverage of the New York Grand Slam airs across ESPN platforms.
Sportico released its 2025 tennis prize money tracker late last week, and three of the annual cross-tour rankings' Top-5 earners hail from the WTA.
With $8.21 million in total 2025 earnings so far, newly minted Wimbledon winner Iga Świątek came in third behind ATP Tour giants Carlos Alcaraz ($10.63 million) and Jannik Sinner ($9.04 million).
Just behind Świątek sit reigning US Open champ Aryna Sabalenka ($7.13 million) and 2025 French Open winner Coco Gauff ($5.95 million) in fourth- and fifth-place, respectively.
Even more, a total of six women's tour standouts occupy slots in the Top 10, with Mirra Andreeva ($4.15 million), Madison Keys ($3.96 million), and Jasmine Paolini ($3.79 million) joining the previously trio in that upper echelon.
The gender parity on the list is a direct result of the fact that all four of the sport's Grand Slams boast equal prize money between the men's and women's competitions — a shift that began with the 1973 US Open and saw full adoption across the quartet of tennis majors with the 2007 Wimbledon Championships.
Now approaching two decades of Grand Slam equal pay, pro tennis players enjoy one of the highest in-competition earning potentials across all women's sports.
This year's tennis prize money rankings are far from locked in, however, as the 2025 US Open steps into its second round on Wednesday — with a record-setting $90 million total purse on the line to boost players' spots on the list.
Should world No. 1 Sabalenka defend her title — or if No. 2 Świątek or No. 3 Gauff emerges victorious in the season's final Grand Slam — a WTA player could launch herself to the top of the 2025 earnings list.
World No. 75 Alexandra Eala opened her 2025 US Open campaign with a bang on Sunday, upsetting Denmark's No. 14 Clara Tauson 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (13-11) to become the first-ever Filipina player to win a Grand Slam match in the Open Era.
"I'm so blessed to be the first to do this, I take so much pride in representing my country," Eala said following the victory. "It makes what I do bigger than myself."
The 2025 tennis season has been a banner year for the rising star, as a 2025 Miami Open run saw Eala defeat both 2025 Australian Open champ No. 6 Madison Keys and six-time Grand Slam winner No. 2 Iga Świątek en route to becoming the first-ever Filipina to advance to a WTA semifinal.
The 20-year-old has played professionally since graduating from Spain's Rafael Nadal Academy in 2023, with Sunday's win coming just three years after Eala claimed the 2022 US Open girls' championship.
The crowd in Queens was overwhelmingly behind their former junior champ on Sunday — a boost that Eala was quick to acknowledge in her post-match interview.
"To be Filipino is something I take so much pride in," Eala told reporters. “I don't have a home tournament, so to be able to have this community here at the US Open, I'm so grateful they made me feel like I'm home."
"This match is one for the books for me," she summed up.
Eala now moves on to the US Open's second round, hitting the court again on Wednesday against an as-yet-undetermined opponent.
How to watch the 2025 US Open
The first round of the 2025 US Open continues on Monday and Tuesday, with live coverage of the New York Grand Slam airing across ESPN platforms.
The 2025 US Open has officially landed in New York, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka looks to kick off her 2024 title defense when the main draw of the tennis season's final Grand Slam hits courts on Sunday.
The Queens-based tournament marks Sabalenka's last shot at winning a major title this season, with the three-time Slam victor falling in both the 2025 Australian Open and 2025 French Open finals as well as stumbling out of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships in the semifinal round.
With the sport's biggest payday on the line, tennis's top talent are preparing to battle Sabalenka for both hardware and the tournament's record $5 million champion's check.
Joining the 27-year-old on this year's US Open roster are reigning Wimbledon champion No. 2 Iga Świątek, 2025 French Open winner No. 3 Coco Gauff, and home-state hero and 2024 US Open runner-up No. 4 Jessica Pegula.
With five of the WTA's Top-11 players, the US contingent is hoping the reclaim the host nation's Grand Slam trophy this year, as reigning Australian Open champ No. 6 Madison Keys, 2025 Wimbledon runner-up No. 9 Amanda Anisimova, and No. 11 Emma Navarro join Gauff and Pegula as the USA's frontrunners.
Two-time US Open winner and fan favorite No. 25 Naomi Osaka also enters the tournament as a seeded competitor for the first time since 2021, while 45-year-old icon Venus Williams will take the main-draw court for her 25th Queens Slam after headlining this year's wild card list.
How to watch the 2025 US Open
The US Open singles tournament begins on Sunday and runs through the September 6th final.
Live coverage of the New York Grand Slam will air across ESPN platforms.