Another thrilling season is on the cards in 2025, with plenty of twists and turns as ever having taken place in 2024.
Both the men’s and women’s Grand Slams were, however, dominated by a handful of players this time around.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz each won two Grand Slam titles on the ATP Tour, with Aryna Sabalenka in the same position.
Sinner went on to win the ATP Finals, although it was Coco Gauff who shocked the top stars to win the WTA Finals.
All will now be eyeing a very strong start to the 2025 Grand Slam season, which begins with the Australian Open next month.
Andy Roddick blown away by ‘biggest upset’ Jasmine Paolini
Andy Roddick has backed Karolina Muchova for Grand Slam success in 2025, although it was Jasmine Paolini who attracted his attention in 2024.
“What a story she was in 2024,” he said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast. “I don’t care about what she does in 2025. I don’t even want to go there.
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“Talk about maximising your skillset for a given year on the biggest of stages. And stages frankly you hadn’t performed on in your entire career. Nobody saw this coming.
“The biggest upset in the entire year in terms of where they finished in the rankings and I have loved watching her.”
What Jasmine Paolini did that was a ‘joy to behold’ for Jon Wertheim
Roddick wasn’t the only one blown away by Paolini, whose current career-high ranking of fourth is the joint-highest for an Italian woman.
Jon Wertheim has also been left really impressed by the 28-year-old, telling Roddick: “Not only is it a pleasure to watch a mid-career player take a leap like this, she hadn’t been out of the second round in a major in her entire career. She’s 28 years old.
“Also the way she did it, she is listed as 5ft 4 and that’s probably generous, for her to come with that game and have the inherent disadvantages of being sometimes eight or nine inches smaller than the opponent on the other side of the net.
“To perform her duties, to do it with that level of joy, she was great in interviews, she was great point to point, she had a magical spring and kept it going.
“Wins Dubai and keeps it going and gets to the Roland Garros final. The fact the story kept perpetuating itself, it really was a joy to behold. It really was one of the great sources of light in 2024.”
| Result | Year | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 2024 | French Open | Clay | Iga Swiatek | 2–6, 1–6 |
| Loss | 2024 | Wimbledon | Grass | Barbora Krejcikova | 2–6, 6–2, 4–6 |
Paolini doubled her WTA Titles count in 2024, with her superb 41/20 win/loss record leaving her behind only Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Gauff in the rankings.
Particularly impressive were her Grand Slam showings, with the Italian reaching the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon singles, albeit losing on both occasions.
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