Title winners
Elena Rybakina stretched her winning streak to 11 matches on Saturday night, when she captured the WTA Finals title by defeating the World No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka, 6-3, 7-6(0) in Riyadh.
Rybakina earned $5.235 million for the victory, while Sabalenka took home $2.695 million as runner-up. Despite losing in Riyadh, Sabalenka can smile all the way to the bank as the total of $13,008,519 prize money she has earned this season is an all-time record, surpassing Serena Williams' record from 2013 ($12,385,572)
For Sabalenka, it was a second loss in the final of the season-ending tournament after the four-time Grand Slam winner lost to Caroline Garcia in 2022.
It was a brilliant end to the year for Rybakina, who had to endure early-season turmoil, emotionally and professionally, when her coach, Stefano Vukov, was temporarily banned from the tour for allegedly abusive behaviour, and she failed to make the quarters at any of the four majors.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic secured the 101st title of his career with victory at the Hellenic Championships after he came through a gruelling encounter against Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in Saturday's final in Athens, fighting back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
However, the hard-fought win in the Greek capital came at a high price for the 24-time Grand Slam champion as the Serb was subsequently forced to withdraw from the ATP Finals in Turin because of an "ongoing" shoulder injury.
Before the final in Athens, Musetti was under serious pressure to capture the title to leapfrog Felix Auger-Aliassime into the final qualification spot for the ATP Finals. However, after Djokovic withdrew, Musetti took over his spot to compete at the season finale for the first time.
Thanks to the win in Athens, Djokovic is now two titles behind Federer in the ATP Tour's all-time list, while Jimmy Connors leads the way with 109.
Finally, in a breathtaking week of tennis action, Learner Tien became the ninth first-time winner on the ATP Tour this season with a nail-biting win on Saturday at the Moselle Open in Metz against Cameron Norrie 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6).
By winning in Metz, Tien became the first American teenager to win a tour-level title since Andy Roddick, who claimed his first title as a 19-year-old in 2002.
Biggest strugglers
Eliminated in the first round in Basel and then in Paris, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard stumbled again early in Metz, beaten by Vitaliy Sachko, a lucky loser and world number 222.
The Frenchman is struggling, particularly with his return game, which is considered one of the worst on the ATP Tour, and with general inconsistency and physical faltering. His poor return often offsets his excellent serve, and while he has had moments of success, he has a significant number of early-round losses.
Mpetshi Perricard takes up last place on the ATP Tour in 14 return categories, only breaking serve in about 10% of his matches.
The defeat in Metz concluded a difficult year for the 22-year-old player, who has recorded 17 wins and 26 losses. While his best performances came in Brisbane and Winston-Salem, where he reached the semi-finals, he is now close to dropping out of the top 50 and will need to add consistency to his game if he wants to become a genuine threat on the tour again in 2026.
Standout moment
You should never count out Pablo Carreno Busta. The 34-year-old Spaniard on Sunday captured the title at the Alicante Ferrero Challenger, defeating France’s Hugo Grenier 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in a thrilling final at the JC Ferrero Tennis Academy.
For Carreno Busta, who for years was enrolled as a bright super-talent at the JC Ferrero Tennis Academy, the triumph was extra special as lifting the trophy in the place where his illustrious career began marked a deeply personal and heartfelt moment, as his career seemed to come full circle.
The experienced Spaniard has never brought down the curtain on his career despite going through hardships that would have made many players throw in the towel.
Carreno Busta, who enjoyed a career-high ranking as No. 10 in the world in September 2011, chose to have elbow surgery in November 2023, a year after the pain began. By the time he returned to the Tour, at Roland Garros last season, the Gijon native saw his ranking drop to No. 1,049 in the ATP Rankings.
Today, Carreno Busta has clawed his way back to a ranking of 89th in the world, thanks to his weekend triumph.
Best rallies
Despite being 38 years old, Djokovic proved in the Athens final that his fitness certainly can't be put into question when he won this point by producing a superb full-stretch drop-volley.
Rybakina could hardly do anything wrong in Riyadh in the past week, and her ground strokes were on another planet, clearly shown by this forehand winner on the run against Jasmine Paolini.
Upcoming events
While the women wrote the final chapter of their season with the WTA finals in Riyadh, this year's top eight men's singles players and top eight doubles pairs head to Italy for the ATP Tour season finale at the Turin Inalpi Arena.
The local hope Jannik Sinner and top seed Carlos Alcaraz lead the prestigious group of players as the pair seem destined for a direct battle for the Brad Drewett Trophy and the extra bonus of potentially ending the 2025 campaign as world No. 1.
The rest of the lineup includes Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, and Alex de Minaur, as well as Lorenzo Musetti and Félix Auger-Aliassime, who also qualified on Saturday.
Players in Turin are divided into two groups of four, where they will play three best-of-three-set matches in the group stage, with the top two in each group progressing to the semi-finals.
Should the players finish level on points in the group table, whoever won the match between the players in question will prove decisive.