Four WTA Tour players primed for 2025 breakout season
The WTA Tour is notorious for being one of sport’s toughest nuts to crack. It is incredibly competitive and the margins are remarkably fine. There are some that appear close to major breakout seasons, though.
It won’t be easy, of course. The top of the WTA Tour rankings are more settled than they have been for years, and a new established elite of Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff appears to here to stay for a while.
There are some real opportunities below them though, and here are four players who may well be heading into 2025 smelling opportunity.
Diana Shnaider
Age: 20
Career high ranking: 12
Some may reasonably question why Diana Shnaider is even in a list of players who might break through in 2025, because she’s already firmly made her mark. That’s the exciting thing about Shnaider, though: that sense that she’s already at a very high level yet there is still so much more to come.
The Russian had a brilliant season, leveraging her power game to win four titles – including the WTA 500 in Bad Homburg. If she isn’t a top ten player by the end of 2025, I think just about everyone will be surprised.
Linda Noskova
Age: 20
Career high ranking: 25
One of the most prominent lessons that WTA Tour has taught us is that you do not, under any circumstances, underestimate Czech players. That is why few were that surprised when she dumped Iga Swiatek out of the Australian Open a year ago.
She was unseeded then, but that won’t be the case in Melbourne in 2025, which is demonstrative of her recent rise through the rankings. That rise has been predominantly powered by a quarterfinal at the Australian Open and winning a maiden WTA 500 title in Monterrey, but a fine all-round game and seemingly impenetrable temperament have played major parts too.
Ashlyn Krueger
Age: 20
Career high ranking: 51
Ashlyn Krueger is not an especially well-known name yet on the WTA Tour, and that is largely due to the fact she is yet to make a major Grand Slam splash. She was impressive at the 2024 USA Open, beating Zhang Shuai and Mirra Andreeva before losing in the third round, but neither sent shockwaves.
Krueger is one of the hardest working players on the tour, though, and she has a very good all-round game to build upon. Those two things generally combine to mean consistent progression year-on-year. She’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
Elina Avanesyan
Age: 22
Career high ranking: 43
When you think about breakout tennis stars, you generally think of it happening really early in a career. Elina Avanesyan is hardly a veteran at 22, but she’s not a new kid on the block either.
You wouldn’t say there is one big element to her game either, with perhaps the one exception of above-average movement. However, she has enjoyed a steady rise though the rankings despite still awaiting her maiden WTA title. Sometimes you just get a feeling about a player that they are just coming to the boil and bringing multiple elements of their game together at the same time, and Avanesyan is certainly giving off that vibe heading into 2025.
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