Top five WTA players who can bag their maiden title in 2025

Could one of these women claim their first Grand Slam title in 2025?

The 2024 saw repeat winners taking home Grand Slam trophies. Aryna Sabalenka won the Australian Open and US Open, Iga Swiatek won her third French Open title, and Barbora Krejcikova took Wimbledon. The last time new champions emerged was a decade ago in 2014, when Li Na, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, and Serena Williams won the four majors.

If we are due for a first-time Grand Slam winner in 2025, these are the five active women possessing the talent to return with their first major in the bag. Each of these five players have reached at least one Grand Slam final and are or have been ranked among the top ten in the WTA.

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Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula overcame her Grand Slam problem of six quarterfinal losses on the game’s biggest stage. She made it to the finals at the US Open by getting the better of World No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the last eight. Pegula came back from a set down to defeat Karolina Muchova in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka. 

The 30-year-old also won the WTA 1000 title in Toronto and matched her career-high ranking of No. 3 following her US Open final run. It was a noteworthy second half of the season for the American after second-round exits in Melbourne and London, besides missing Roland Garros and the European clay-court leg due to a rib injury. 

Ons Jabeur 

Saying that the 2024 season did not go as expected for Ons Jabeur would be an understatement. It was an injury-plagued season for Jabeur, one of the few Arab women in the WTA. The Tunisian was No. 6 at the beginning of the year and was among the top 10 until the summer. Soon after ending her season in August with a shoulder injury, her rankings went into free fall, and will end the year outside of the top 40.  

A healthy Ons Jabeur could be a threat to the big names. The Tunisian has three Grand Slam finals in her resume – Wimbledon and the US Open in 2022 and Wimbledon again in 2023. She went as high as No. 2 on the WTA rankings in 2022 and captured the WTA 1000 event in Madrid in the same year.

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Karolina Muchova 

Muchova has returned well outside the top 20 at world No. 22 after being dropped at the end of May. The 2023 French Open finalist took out Belarusian powerhouse Aryna Sabalenka in three hard-fought sets that year. She regained some of her lost ground and bounced back from her season low of 53rd in September in just three months.

The Czech stayed away from competitive tennis for ten months after a wrist injury emerged at the 2023 US Open. Muchova returned to action in June at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne. She reached the final of the Palermo Ladies Open and the China Open, along with a last-four appearance at the US Open. 

Jasmine Paolini

Italian Jasmine Paolini is the very definition of a late bloomer. Having made her first WTA 1000 final debut at 28, she went on to win the Dubai-based event, defeating Anna Kalinskaya in the final from a set down. The Italian also put together two successive title-round appearances in Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the first Italian woman to reach the final at two different majors. 

Paolini climbed from No. 15 to No. 7 in the world after her exploits in Paris. She earned the No. 5 position after making the finals at Wimbledon, with the No. 4 position coming after reaching the Wuhan Open quarter-finals.  

In 2025, she will eye the opportunity to become the third Italian woman to win a major after 2010 Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone and 2015 US Open winner Flavia Pennetta.

Qinwen Zheng 

Qinwen Zheng reaching the Australian Open final was a sign of the sensational year that was yet to unfold for the Chinese player. She became the first player from China to win an Olympic gold at the Paris Games in the tennis singles event. 

Zheng cracked the top 5 on reaching the summit clash at the WTA Finals Riyadh. She is currently No. 5 in the world and led the women’s tour with 445 aces this season.

A tryst with history awaits should the 22-year-old prevail at a Grand Slam event. She will become only the second Chinese player with a Grand Slam title to her name. Li Na was the last Chinese player to taste victory at a major – winning the French Open in 2011 and the Australian Open in 2014.

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