The key reason why Elena Rybakina was able to win three titles in 2025, including the WTA Finals

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Elena Rybakina surprised many people with her fantastic success in 2025, which culminated in WTA Finals glory.

Rybakina won three WTA Tour titles overall this season, with the 26-year-old from Kazakhstan taking her career tally to 11.

She lifted the trophies in both Strasbourg and Ningbo before her stunning success at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

Rybakina went unbeaten at the year-end tournament, a feat which helped earn the champion a huge $5.24million.

Why Elena Rybakina was able to win three titles in 2025

Runner-up Sabalenka was also handsomely rewarded for her efforts, while the Belarusian is also ending the year as world number one.

But world number five Rybakina has a lot to be proud of from her latest campaign, in which she really shone in one particular area.

She fired down a mammoth total of 516 aces throughout the season, more than any other player on the WTA Tour.

It’s an area of tennis where she’s constantly been particularly strong, but Rybakina has managed to take her serve to a whole new level in 2025.

The 10 players with the most aces hit on the WTA Tour in 2025

As mentioned, Rybakina led the way for aces hit on the WTA Tour in 2025, and did so comfortably with her huge tally.

Linda Noskova was her nearest rival in that regard with 373 aces, followed by the 358 of Clara Tauson in third place.

Her fellow WTA superstars Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek also ranked among the top 10 players, but world number three Coco Gauff is perhaps unsurprisingly not in the list.

Gauff’s serving struggles have been well-documented, although the American has her issues with double faults as opposed to hitting aces.

But she deserves praise for working on that part of her game, with the same needing to be said of Rybakina, who has almost mastered it.

As world number one Sabalenka and her rival Rybakina have both shown, a deadly serve is clearly a huge asset on the WTA Tour right now.

It is, however, worth noting that Rybakina has impressed in various other areas, but her serve has really stood out.

Along with her tour-leading aces, she occupies top spot for first serve points percentage, and second for both service points won percentage and service games won percentage.

Importantly, in the two areas for which she’s ranked second, that is behind Lucie Havlickova, who only played two matches, compared to the 76 of Rybakina.