Elena Rybakina’s record prize money and ranking points from WTA Finals as Aryna Sabalenka also earn big
Elena Rybakina collected the biggest prize cheque in women’s tennis when she defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the 2025 WTA Finals while she also earned the maximum amount of ranking points on offer at the tournament.
2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina was a rank outsider at the start of the season-ending tournament in Riyadh as she was the last of the eight qualifiers to secure her ticket to Saudi Arabia, doing so in the penultimate week of regular action on the WTA Tour.
But she was the last woman standing as she went 3-0 in the Serena Williams Group – losing only one set – then beat Jessica Pegula in three sets in the semi-final before securing a 6-3, 7-6 (7-0) victory over world No 1 Sabalenka in the showpiece match.
In an interview with WTATennis.com after her win, Rybakina admitted that her expectations were low at the start of the WTA Finals, saying: “I guess I was not putting too much pressure on myself. It’s a lot of challenges when you come from tournament to tournament, even if it’s not a long travel.
“You need to get used to the new conditions, new balls, learning how to control them. We did only two days of practice, and I went right into my first match. It was not easy.
“But the advantage I had was the serve, that’s what we were focusing on because we knew in the longer rallies I wouldn’t be feeling so confident because we just arrived.
“I was trying to go for early shots. I was really aggressive, I would say, the whole tournament. The best players, they will give you some chances but not that much.”
With a 5-0 record, comes a big cheque and handsome points tally.
WTA Ranking Points Earned In Riyadh
Players earn 200 points per round-robin victory, but they don’t earn any points for reaching the semi-final with the big reward only coming after the final where the winner earns an additional 900 points and the runner-up 400.
Thus, Rybakina collected 1,500 points (600 for her three wins in the group phase and 900 for her heroics in the final) to take her tally in the WTA Rankings to 5,583 to move up one place to No 5.
That’s an excellent effort for a player who was at No 10 at the beginning of October, but she started her charge with a quarter-final appearance in Wuhan, a title run at the Ningbo Open and a semi-final at the Pan Pacific Open.
WTA News
What Tim Henman & Jimmy Connors said about Coco Gauff’s biggest issue after WTA Finals exit
WTA Finals prize money & ranking points won by Jessica Pegula & Amanda Anisimova revealed
Sabalenka, meanwhile, was also undefeated in the group phase as she beat Coco Gauff, Pegula and Jasmine Paolini in the Steffi Graf group before edging Amanda Anisimova in the last four.
The world No 1 earned 1,000 points (600 for the round-robin wins and 400 for finishing runner-up) and ends the year with 10,870 points in the rankings for a 2,475-point lead over second-placed Iga Swiatek with Gauff, Anisimova and Rybakina completing the top five.
Prize Money Collected
Rybakina’s career prize-money earnings were $19,144,617 before the start of the WTA Finals and she collected a record-breaking $5,235,000 for her efforts the past week to take her career earnings to $24,438,717.
The Kazakhstan star received $335,000 as a participation fee, $1,050,000 for winning her three group matches ($350,000 per win) and $2,500,000 for winning the title.
Sabalenka, meanwhile, went home with $2,655,000 as the defeated finalist collects the participation fee, wins per group match and $1,270,000 for finishing runner-up.
The four-time Grand Slam winner has now earned $45,175,621 in career prize money, putting her second on the all-time list behind Serena Williams, who is on $94,816,730.
