Overview
- Rybakina defeated Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7-0) to claim the Billie Jean King Trophy with a perfect week at the season-ending event.
- The title completed an 11-match winning streak, delivered 1,500 ranking points, and will move Rybakina back into the world top five.
- She became the first player representing Kazakhstan—and the first representing an Asian nation—to win the WTA Finals singles crown.
- Her unbeaten run earned a record $5.235 million winner’s payout, the largest single-tournament prize on the women’s tour.
- Rybakina declined the customary photo with Archer after the final, a moment widely linked to the WTA’s earlier suspension of coach Stefano Vukov, whose ban was overturned on appeal in August; Pam Shriver publicly criticized the snub as inappropriate, while Sabalenka finishes the year as No. 1 with a single-season earnings record.