What Tracy Austin and Elena Rybakina have done at the WTA Finals which no other player in tennis history have

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Elena Rybakina clinched her maiden WTA Finals title on Saturday with a world-class performance.

Taking on Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka, Rybakina began the WTA Finals championship match as a slight underdog.

Pulling off the upset, Rybakina defeated Sabalenka in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (6-0), to win the tour finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In doing so, the Kazakh matched a record set by American tennis legend Tracy Austin, back in 1980.

Elena Rybakina becomes second player ever to beat the world number one in back-to-back WTA Finals

Rybakina has now beaten the world number one in back-to-back WTA Finals tournaments.

• 2024 WTA Finals RR – Elena Rybakina defeated [1] Aryna Sabalenka (6-4, 3-6, 6-1)
• 2025 WTA Finals F – Elena Rybakina defeated [1] Aryna Sabalenka (6-3, 7-6)

The only other player to do so was Austin, 45 years ago…

• 1979 WTA Finals – Tracy Austin defeated [1] Chris Evert
• 1980 WTA Finals – Tracy Austin defeated [1] Martina Navratilova

Matching the incredible feat, Rybakina jumped up to fifth in the WTA rankings.

If she can continue to play as well as she did against Sabalenka in the final, she may well find herself chasing down the top spot before too long…

Rybakina trails world number one Sabalenka by over 5,000 points, but is now within 1,000 points of the world number three, Coco Gauff.

Considering Rybakina sat outside the top 10 for large parts of the year, she should be immensely proud to see her end-of-season efforts catapult her back into contention.

How well has Elena Rybakina performed at the end of 2025?

From Wimbledon onwards, Rybakina looked more like her former self, enjoying strong results at several events.

The Kazakh reached the semifinals of the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open, and made a run to the last eight in Wuhan.

It was after her quarterfinal defeat in Wuhan, however, that things really got going for Rybakina, as she embarked on an 11-match winning streak to end the year.

Elena Rybakina’s end-of-season winning streak

• 1. Ningbo Open 2R [WIN] vs Dayana Yastremska
• 2. Ningbo Open QF [WIN] vs Ajla Tomljanovic
• 3. Ningbo Open SF [WIN] vs Jasmine Paolini
• 4. Ningbo Open F [WIN] vs Ekaterina Alexandrova
• 5. Japan Open 2R [WIN] vs Leylah Fernandez
• 6. Japan Open QF [WIN] vs Victoria Mboko
• Japan Open – Walkover
• 7. WTA Finals RR [WIN] vs Amanda Anisimova
• 8. WTA Finals RR [WIN] vs Iga Swiatek
• 9. WTA Finals RR [WIN] vs Ekaterina Alexandrova
• 10. WTA Finals SF [WIN] vs Jessica Pegula
• 11. WTA Finals F [WIN] vs Aryna Sabalenka

Rybakina has been excellent, and she needed to be, only making it to Riyadh thanks to her title win in Ningbo and quarterfinal appearance at the Japan Open.

Her level in Saudi Arabia was particularly impressive, taking down the world number one, two, four, and five.

Winning the title, Rybakina became the latest ‘unique’ winner at the season-ending finals.

No player has won multiple titles at the event since Serena Williams, over a decade ago.

Only time will tell if we will see the pattern continue in 2026, or if the likes of Gauff, Iga Swiatek, or Rybakina can add a second title to their collection.

The 2026 WTA Finals will begin on November 7, 2026.