"She is the heavy favorite on all surfaces," Navratilova discusses Sabalenka ahead of the WTA Finals
The 2025 WTA Finals will begin on November 1st in Riyadh. Martina Navratilova analyzed the season of the top two ranked players, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, who also lead the Race rankings.
In the coming days, the 2025 WTA season will conclude with the WTA Finals, held in Riyadh for the second consecutive season. While Coco Gauff hopes to defend her title, the two players everyone is watching are Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, who hold the top two spots in both the rankings and the Race.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova believes the world number one will be the favorite to win the Finals for the first time in her career, having lost the final in 2022 to Caroline Garcia.
"Aryna (Sabalenka) was only three or four matches away from achieving the Calendar Grand Slam. Her consistency should not be underestimated. She is the heavy favorite on all surfaces, but particularly on medium-paced hard courts where you benefit from a solid bounce and good traction.
She reached the final in almost every major tournament this year, but she still regrets more than anything what happened at Roland Garros, because she could have won that match against Coco Gauff. She bounced back and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, where she was beaten by Amanda Anisimova.
She then won the US Open. Her shots are effective on all surfaces and she has enough time to get into good position. The surface is fast enough to allow her to do damage, but slow enough to allow her to set up her shots. She is formidable on this type of surface," stated Navratilova, who then discussed Swiatek.
"I find Iga (Swiatek) a bit enigmatic this year, considering the standards she set in recent seasons. She didn't win the tournament everyone thought she would win at Roland Garros, then she turned things around and won the one no one expected her to win.
She has had her ups and downs, but she won Wimbledon in an incredible way. She wasn't afraid to miss her shots. That's the kind of aggressive approach she needs to adopt in Riyadh. That should give her confidence," she thus stated for Tennis Up To Date.
WTA Finals 
