World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka captured her second Brisbane International title to enjoy a perfect start to her 2025 Hologic WTA Tour season. On Sunday, Sabalenka came back to defeat 21-year-old qualifier Polina Kudermetova 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the final to secure her 18th career title.
Sabalenka won her first Brisbane title in 2023, when the event was held in Adelaide. In the final, she beat another qualifier, Linda Noskova. Last year, she fell just short to Elena Rybakina in the final.
Brisbane: Draws | Scores | Order of Play
Brisbane is Sabalenka’s fourth title on Australian soil. She will next take that confidence to Melbourne, where she is the two-time Australian Open defending champion. The 26-year-old is bidding to become the first woman to win three consecutive Australian Opens since Martina Hingis dominated the event from 1997 to 1999.
Seeded No.1 in Brisbane, Sabalenka defeated Renata Zarazua, Yulia Putintseva, Marie Bouzkova, Mirra Andreeva and Kudermetova.
Kudermetova’s breakthrough: Kudermetova came through qualifying and navigated a difficult draw just to make her first WTA final. She notched the first Top 10 win of her career this week when she rallied to beat No.9 Daria Kasatkina 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the Round of 16. She defeated Wang Xinyu, Liudmila Samsonova, Ashlyn Krueger, and Anhelina Kalinina to win five consecutive matches for the first time in her WTA career.
Kudermetova, who is the younger sister of former No.9 Veronika Kudermetova, showed signs of an impending breakthrough at the end of the 2024 season. She made the quarterfinals in Seoul as a qualifier and then finished her WTA season with a semifinal run in Merida to push her ranking right outside the Top 100.
Anatomy of a comeback: Kudermetova showed tremendous poise in the biggest match of her young career. She refused to capitulate after Sabalenka grabbed an early break, holding her aggressive baseline position to build cumulative rally pressure on the World No.1. Unable to push Kudermetova back into a more defensive position, Sabalenka found it difficult to open up space on the court.
After saving two break points to keep within a break of Sabalenka, Kudermetova broke to level the first set at 3-3 before a poor service game from Sabalenka suddenly gave Kudermetova a set point. Serving down 5-4, Sabalenka played too passively, and Kudermetova broke on her second set point to steal the set.
But after losing her first set of the tournament, Sabalenka quickly reset herself to ensure she would not lose a second. She lost just five points behind her serve in the second set, which allowed her attack her returns and clean up her baseline game. After forcing the match into a decider, Sabalenka raced for the finish line to close out the 1-hour and 47-minute win.
Olympic silver medalists take the doubles: Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider captured their first Hologic WTA Tour title by defeating Anna Kalinskaya and Priscilla Hon 7-6(6), 7-5 in Saturday’s final. It is the first doubles title for both players, either as a team or individually.
