Highest earnings in a tennis season (female)

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) banked more prize money in 2025 than any other female tennis player in a single season – $15,008,519 (£11,424,275). On 8 November 2025, the four-time Grand Slam champion took home a cool $2.695 million (£2.051 million) as the beaten finalist in the year-end WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia, a cheque that took her beyond Serena Williams’ 2013 single-season earnings record of $12,385,572 (£7,658,841). Across 16 tournaments in 2025, Sabalenka cashed in on million-dollar payouts for winning the US Open ($5 million; £3.7 million), reaching the final of the Australian Open ($1.2 million; £965,000) and the French Open ($1.45 million; £1.07 million), the semi-final at Wimbledon ($1.05 million; £775,000), and lifting the winner’s trophy at two prestigious WTA 1000 events: the Miami Open and the Madrid Open (earning $1.1 million at each tournament).

The first of Sabalenka’s four 2025 titles on the WTA Tour came at the Brisbane International in Australia in January, when her winner’s cheque was a more modest – but a still not-to-be-sniffed-at – $192,475 (£155,000).

In 2025, Sabalenka won 63 matches (with 12 defeats) and earned more ranking points (10,870) than any woman in WTA Tour history.

Williams’ impressive 2013 season brought her titles at the French Open, the US Open and the year-end WTA Tour Championships (as it was named back then) among her 11 tournament wins, with a win-loss record of 78-4. However, prize money has increased significantly since 2013, with Sabalenka’s $5-million payday for winning the 2025 US Open comparing favourably to Serena’s cheque for winning the same tournament ($2,555,715), allowing the Belarusian to outearn Williams with an arguably less dominant – albeit still wildly successful – season.