Top five players who have withdrawn from WTA Brisbane International 2025

Elena Rybakina, the Brisbane International defending champion, will not return for the 2025 edition.

The Brisbane International officially marks the beginning of the 2025 season and will begin on December 29, lasting a week into the new year. Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed, leads the field in the absence of several big names from the WTA. After Sabalenka, the next highest seed in the line-up is seventh-seed Jessica Pegula.

Emma Navarro is the eighth seed, and Daria Kasatkina, the ninth seed, round up the top 10. Ons Jabeur, who ended her 2024 season prematurely with a shoulder injury, will also be seen in action at the Brisbane International.

The absence of five of the top 10 players will have its sheen restored by two-time Australian Open champ Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro. Pegula and Navarro returned to the winner’s circle this season. Pegula picked up the WTA 1000 trophy in Toronto, while Navarro claimed victory at Hobart early in the 2024 season.

Read on to know more about the five dropouts from Brisbane International and what the 2025 season might bring for them.

Top players who have withdrawn from WTA Brisbane International 2025

Elena Rybakina

Elena Rybakina, who is leading the Kazakhstan charge in the United Cup, will not return to defend her singles title. Last season, she posted a facile win over Aryna Sabalenka, 6-0, 6-3. The 25-year-old Rybakina, who fell out of the WTA top five in November this year, took on Goran Ivanisevic as coach to help her arrest the slide.

The Kazakh, a top three player last season, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and will hope to continue from where she left off in 2025. Rybakina won three tour-level titles last season—Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart.

Qinwen Zheng

Qinwen Zheng is the sole player on this list to not play at the 2025 United Cup. Zheng, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist, announced that she would not be competing for Team China in the mixed-teams tournament currently underway. The Chinese woman will instead focus on preparations for the 2025 season’s first Grand Slam.

The Chinese woman broke into the top 10 this season and is currently ranked World No. #5. She has been among the top 10 since January when she notched up her maiden Grand Slam title round appearance. Tournament wins at Palermo and Tokyo followed. Zheng also made the championship round of the WTA Finals on debut but fell to Coco Gauff in the finals.

Jasmine Paolini

Not only did Jasmine Paolini end her three-year title drought at this year’s Dubai Open WTA 1000 for the biggest win of her career, but she also slingshot herself to the No. #4 position in the WTA rankings. It is a career-high for the 28-year-old Italian. Paolini, who won the Olympic doubles gold with Sara Errani, also bagged the China Open doubles title with Errani in October.

Perhaps the best takeaway for Paolini in 2024 would be her two back-to-back Grand Slam finals. Before reaching the title rounds in Paris and London, the Italian was yet to cross the fourth round at any major.

With the tag of WTA 1000 winner under her belt, Paolini was the architect of Team Italy’s maiden Billie Jean King Cup. She helped Italy secure the title when she won the decisive rubber over Slovakian Rebecca Sramkova to give the Italians an unassailable 2-0 lead in the finals.

Coco Gauff

Despite missing out on a Grand Slam title in 2024 and losing out on her US Open title defence thanks to a fourth-round loss, Coco Gauff redeemed herself with three WTA titles. Among them was the WTA Finals trophy in her first trip to the title round. She also won titles at Beijing and Auckland. En route to the WTA Finals trophy, Gauff overcame the World No. #1 and No. #2 players in the same event. 

Gauff, by joining compatriots Daniell Collins and Taylor Fritz in the United Cup, has ruled herself out of the Brisbane International 2025. She also gave up any chances of turning up in Auckland to defend the title she has won for the past two years.

Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek is the highest-ranked player in the WTA Tour to sit out the Brisbane International in favour of the United Cup. Swiatek was the proverbial hare in the 2024 season. The Polish player won her first title as early as February—the WTA 1000 title in Qatar.

She followed it up by claiming the trophy at Indian Wells, another WTA 1000 title. Swiatek then went on to win three events in a row at Madrid, Rome and her third Roland Garros title between April and June.

Swiatek fell back as the calendar transitioned to the hard court season. She lost in the semi-final of the singles event at the Paris Games, and her best appearance on the tour was a last-four appearance at the Cincinnati Open. She also exited the WTA Finals in the group stage, an event she won undefeated last season.

This allowed Aryna Sabalenka to take centre stage even as the Pole lost the WTA No. #1 position to her Belarusian rival.  She is playing in the United Cup under the guidance of new coach Wim Fissette. Tomasz Wiktorowski was her coach until October when they parted ways.

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