Women's tennis storylines: the Swiatek-Sabalenka rivalry, Gauff and Rybakina's rebuild

In two weeks, the best women's tennis players in the world will descend on Melbourne for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season and the first tennis milestone for 2025.

The WTA Tour is intriguingly poised as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and world No. 2 Iga Swiatek prepare to resume their duel for supremacy with the resurgent Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina ready to turn a duet into a quartet. Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini and US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarro look to build on breakout seasons as Ons Jabeur makes its comeback. And after the first Tour final in Saudi Arabia, the WTA and other figureheads will again take into account how inequality affects women in tennis and what they can do better.

The athletics Tennis writers Matthew Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare outline the biggest storylines in women's tennis for the 2025 season.

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What about the rivalry between Swiatek and Sabalenka?

Qualitatively, there was no better WTA match than Iga Swiatek's 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7) victory over Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid Open final in May. Their duel at the top of the rankings was an interesting subplot throughout 2024, ultimately leading to Sabalenka taking over the No. 1 spot from Swiatek in October.

Where will the rivalry go next? A Grand Slam meeting would be nice between the two, who have somehow only met once before at a major, with Swiatek beating Sabalenka in a US Open semi-final two years ago. The ultimate test of a Grand Slam final would be electric; it would also introduce their rivalry to a much wider tennis audience.

At the moment it seems that Sabalenka will stick to her agreements better. Her recent consistency at the Grand Slams has been astonishing, reaching at least the semi-finals in nine of her last twelve majors. While outside the French Open, Swiatek has been far less reliable in the majors despite beating Sabalenka in titles and overall winning percentage in 2024.

Together with new coach Wim Fissette, Swiatek hopes to rediscover her best form and revive a rivalry that has been slowly burning out since that unforgettable meeting in Madrid seven months ago. Sabalenka has added finesse and craft to her raw power in recent months, with Swiatek beginning to do the same under Fissettes' guidance. The difference is that Sabalenka is introducing it for the first time in her singles, where Swiatek used spin, volleys and drop shots with regularity during her breakout 2020 French Open win. If they both continue to develop and Swiatek leaves her one-month doping ban after testing positive for trimetazidine, 2025 will be a dynamite year for the undisputed two best players on the tour today.

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Can Zheng take the next step?

Zheng Qinwen was one of tennis's breakout stars in 2024. He reached the final of the Australian Open early this year and went on to win the Olympic gold medal in August. She ends the season at number 5, announcing herself to the wider world after steadily rising up the ladder in recent years. She is now a big star in China.

Zheng is also a bit of a disruptor, someone who has ruffled a few feathers on the WTA Tour. Her cold handshakes at the end of matches have become infamous, and she admits she likes to operate as a lone wolf. I always prefer to keep my distance from the players, she said last month at a press conference during the WTA Finals in Riyadh. Befriending her rivals could mean blunting her competitive instincts on the field, and she doesn't want to take that risk.

Whether or not Zheng can build on last year will be an intriguing WTA subplot. Ditto Jasmine Paolini, who continues to defy expectations. Zheng looks better thanks to the upward curve of her progression, built entirely around her formidable serve and one of the heaviest forehands in the game; Paolini should remain in the top 10, but matching her two Grand Slam finals from 2024 would be a remarkable achievement.

Zheng Qinwen established himself as a force on the WTA Tour in 2024. (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)

Other players looking to take the next step up and down the rankings include Diana Shnaider, the Russian talent on the cusp of the top 10; Donna Vekic, who came agonizingly close to replacing Paolini to reach the Wimbledon final; Amanda Anisimova in her first full season back and Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu, two former Grand Slam champions who have made no secret of their ambitions to reach the highest levels of sport again.

Will Gauff and Rybakina challenge the top two?

There was a period from roughly the late summer of 2023 to the early spring of 2024, when women's tennis seemed headed toward something resembling a Big Four: Sabalenka, Swiatek, Rybakina and Gauff.

But then Rybakina faced a series of ongoing health problems and Gauff had her own serve and forehand problems. Zheng, Navarro, Paolini and 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova also had something to say about that story.

But now Rybakina and Gauff have started doing what they can to get back to the elite level. Rybakina hired Goran Ivanisevic to coach her for the 2025 season. Gauff made a less notable move, hiring a largely unknown coach named Matt Daly, who specializes in grip changes, after parting ways with Brad Gilbert. She promptly won both the WTA 1000 in Beijing and the WTA Tour Finals to salvage a year that did not live up to her expectations. If those two shots are reliable, Gauff can beat anyone. Rybakina, with her devastating serve and an ominous serenity to her play when she's on, is just as capable.

There is an argument that the quartet is active again. Given the more frequent chaos at the top of women's tennis, a better argument can probably be made that no one knows what the top four will be this time next year, Swiatek and Sabalenka separately.

Does Ons Jabeur have a big comeback in her?

There would be few more popular champions than the Minister of Happiness Ons Jabeur, the three-time Grand Slam finalist who postponed her plans to start a family until she claimed a major title.

Unfortunately for her, that first Grand Slam remains not only elusive, but further away than it has been for some time. Knee and shoulder injuries blighted her 2024 season, with the Tunisian saying she needed regular knee injections to play after a third-round defeat to Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon in July. It was no surprise when she ended her season in early September, having previously withdrawn from the US Open.

Tennis is a sport of unlikely comebacks and Jabeur, 30, is hoping for one of her own. Coming back from injuries like this after so much Grand Slam heartache would be one for the ages, and would make the tennis world as happy as its devoted fans.

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Will bigger steps be taken in equity in 2025?

Women's tennis has made some progress towards something approaching equality in 2024.

Equal pay at the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams is here or coming, depending on the event. The WTA Tour Finals regained some legitimacy with $15 million (11.9 million) in prize money. That is comparable to that of men, although the WTA had to go to Saudi Arabia, which does not treat women as equal citizens.

The Grand Slams and various other top tournaments are clearly doing their best to get women on the show field as often as the men. The ATP's current leadership understands that their own events are more valuable when women and men play together.

However, the major work remains to be done. The French Open continues to embarrass itself by refusing to allow the women to participate in the legendary night session on Court Philippe Chatrier, the largest court at Roland Garros. A former women's No. 1, Amelie Mauresmo, is the tournament director, which makes the situation at once tragic and laughable.

Additionally, there are too often too many empty seats at women's tournaments, making the sport seem like a minor league affair for so many weeks. The empty seats send a message to anyone who sees the product on television: nothing important is happening here.

The tours and tournaments have to solve that. What's the answer? Better marketing? Giving away tickets? Emphasize a functional social media presence? All of the above. And more.

Two WTA players to watch

Mirra Andreeva and Iva Jovic are at the top of the list, for different reasons and in different zones of the rankings.

Andreeva, the young Russian star, has made great strides in 2024. She can win on any surface. She's only 17, and she's reached the point in her career where she's older than her ranking (No. 16), always a nice milestone. She plays a kind of zen tennis, combining strength and intelligence with hitting skills beyond her years. She also has one of tennis's proven minds in her corner in Conchita Martinez, an Adult with a capital G who could be the perfect person to guide her through these evolutionary years. At this point, it would be a surprise if she doesn't reach a Grand Slam final this year.

Mirra Andreeva is one of the most talented young players in the world. (François Nel / Getty Images)

Jovic is also a 17-year-old, an American who didn't get nearly as much fuss growing up as some of her contemporaries. She is raw, but quickly excited: Jovic received a wild card into the US Open at the age of 16, where she defeated Magda Linnette, who was twice her age and ranked 347th at the time. Jovic then conceded a set-up and had long chances to beat No. 28 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, losing in three sets on the hottest day of the tournament. There's an expression about young baseball players: the good ones aren't afraid of the field.

Jovic is not afraid of the tennis court.

(Top photo of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek: Robert Prange / Getty Images)