Aryna Sabalenka breaks Serena Williams record with | Sports News

Aryna Sabalenka has as soon as again etched her identify within the historical past books regardless of falling simply short of her first-ever WTA Finals title.

On Saturday, Sabalenka struggled to struggle back tears after falling to Elena Rybakina, 6-3, 7-6 (0), within the WTA Finals championship match — thereby lacking out on a $5.235 million payday. The World No. 1 didn’t depart utterly empty-handed, nevertheless, as she nonetheless walked away with a hefty sum due to wins over Jasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova.

Once the mud had lastly settled on Sabalenka’s embellished 2025 marketing campaign, she made a whopping $15,008,519 in on-court earnings — marking the richest season in WTA historical past. Serena Williams, the earlier record-holder, collected $12,385,572 in 2013, during which she posted a 78-4 record whereas securing titles on the French Open, US Open and WTA Finals.

Sabalenka, in the meantime, raked in $5 million upon claiming the US Open title in September earlier than making $2.695 million in Riyadh over the weekend. Another $2.5 million mixed got here from her runner-up finishes on the Australian Open and Roland Garros.

Thanks to her newest second-place end behind Rybakina, Sabalenka leapfrogged Venus Williams ($42,867,364) and Iga Swiatek ($43,640,490) on the all-time WTA Tour prize money leaderboard with $45,175,621. Only Serena ranks forward, having earned $94,816,730 over the course of her legendary profession from 1995-2022.

Speaking to reporters forward of the WTA Finals championship match, Sabalenka asserted that money isn’t the principle motivator for why she competes. “I simply actually have a lot of love for the game, and I actually take pleasure in combating,” she defined. “I really enjoy pushing myself to the limit, and I enjoy these kind of things,” she said. “And, I mean, of course, when you win, you think, ‘Oh actually, I’ve got a good check,’ you know. But this is never crossing my mind during the match. … But it’s a good check to have.”

Despite failing to claim the elusive first WTA Finals title of her career, Sabalenka — whose post-match decision initially raised eyebrows — insisted that she still felt “great” following the disappointing consequence.

“After a little time, I feel actually great,” Sabalenka informed reporters during a post-match press convention. “I lost this match. She played incredible. I feel like I did my best today. It didn’t work. But I leave this tournament being proud of myself and the things that we’ve been able to achieve.

DON’T MISS:

“I assume by doing this error time and again again, subsequent time I show up within the huge matches I’m in higher control. But yeah, I used to be possibly a little bit emotional immediately, however it did not actually have an effect on my sport. I used to be simply possibly overthinking immediately, possibly an excessive amount of.

“So, I feel it wasn’t like I misplaced full control over my feelings and I misplaced the match. No, I feel she performed unimaginable. I did not use a couple alternatives I had. And, yeah, principally, that is it.”