Who emerged from Women's Australian Open 2025 with most credit?

Madison Keys may have won the title at the 2025 Australian Open but there were a myriad of players leaving Melbourne who can leave with their heads held high. In this article, we look at the main players from the top of the draw down who made a very good account of their fortnight.

Keys defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the final 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 to win her maiden Grand Slam in a run that captured the hearts and minds of those who follow women's tennis. But that is just one result that was unpredictable.

WTA Winners from Australian Open

Madison Keys (Winner)

Starting off of course with the champion in Australia, Madison Keys has always been as harsh as it sounds a nearly woman. She reached the final of the 2017 US Open and many wondered whether she would ever ascend that summit again.

She left that press conference in tears and has since meddled in winning titles but nothing to the same level. She has also battled real injury hell in the past 12 months. But the last few weeks have perhaps been the best of her life.

She ended the season getting married to her long-time coach Bjorn Fratalangelo and went into the new season fit and healthy. She won Adelaide in the lead-up albeit as Sabalenka proved again, the warm-up win is not the caveat to success. The Brisbane curse is very much still real.

But perhaps it was the greatest Women's Grand Slam run of the modern era, she beat Sabalenka, Swiatek, Svitolina, Elena Rybakina and Danielle Collins. Not to mention Ann Li and Elena-Gabriela Ruse. In a side of the sport unlike the men that is unpredictable, Keys proved again that the good people eventually prevail and that it is still very not a field for those who bet that is for sure.

Madison Keys emerges with the most credit.

Aryna Sabalenka (Final)

Despite losing in the final, Aryna Sabalenka proved again that she is the player to well and truly beat in the WTA.

She is still World No.1 and Keys defeating Iga Swiatek stopped any sort of potential for anything different. She took down Clara Tauson, Mirra Andreeva, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Paula Badosa en route to losing to Keys.

She emerges in this list also as she is very much the kind of player to bounce back from a setback. Even Roland Garros, she suffered more heartbreak before she became an all conquering force in the sport.

So in reality, the scars may be there but the comeback is better than the setback and unlike last two years, she will be raring to go for the Middle East in conditions she previously excelled in.

Paula Badosa (Semi-Finals)

Speaking of Badosa, she was perhaps the biggest WTA success story period of the last 12 months and proved it again.

From being on the treatment table and in tears more than she was actually on court little over a year ago, she needed back injections to actually save her career.

To now being back in the top 10 and continuing to go from strength to strength. She sat slumped in the back of the Rod Laver Arena as she lost again to Aryna Sabalenka, her best friend. But after going from being out of the top 100 a year ago to now, it is very much a Badosa firmly back on the rise and in reaching the semi-finals which is her best ever Grand Slam run, it shows that there is still legs in the career of the 27-year-old.

This time the tears are very much a show of how far Badosa has come over how far she has fallen.

Belinda Bencic (Fourth Round)

On what was her return to action at a Grand Slam, Belinda Bencic who surprisingly given how long she has been on tour is only 27 reached the fourth round months after becoming a mother for the first time.

No player really since returning from pregnancy has found it this easy really. Maybe Elina Svitolina but even that took months. Naomi Osaka is still not back to full force and Angelique Kerber retired shortly after her initial stint back.

But perhaps it wasn't a huge surprise. Bencic has been grinding in small tournaments to gain match practice for months and then emerged into the fourth round of the Australian Open losing eventually to Coco Gauff in three sets.

She did have a walk-over in the battle of the mothers against Naomi Osaka but still took out Jelena Ostapenko and Suzan Lamens. A player very much intriguing to watch in the coming months as she seems to have hit the ground running again in truly superb fashion.

Emma Navarro (Quarter-Finals)

While perhaps a humbling against Iga Swiatek isn't exactly the tonic who appears not in this list but more on the questions than answers one, Emma Navarro showed form that she hasn't for a while in Melbourne.

It was very much death, taxes, Emma Navarro in the Quarter-Finals of Grand Slams last year. But after ascending at the US Open to the semi-finals, she fell off a cliff.

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Both injury and also trying desperately too much in fact to reach the WTA Finals, she was usurped by Zheng Qinwen. We know the rest as despite losing to Laura Siegemund in Melbourne, the Chinese ace lost to Coco Gauff in the WTA Finals and was one of the best players in the world to end the year.

Also early losses in Adelaide and Brisbane perhaps didn't foster confidence, but she is a big stage player as she has proven. Only one WTA career title but she sits in the top 10 almost like Maria Sakkari at her best a few years ago. Not someone who wins titles week after week but is there or thereabouts without winning a Grand Slam.

Albeit someone who has gone back to that winning feeling more often than not on smaller tournaments if she has needed to. That won't happen now given Navarro's ranking but she has shown again seeing off Ons Jabeur and Daria Kasatkina as well as Peyton Stearns that the Grand Slam game is still there.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Quarter-Finals)

Perhaps the unsung hero of the Australian Open was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Russian former Roland Garros finalist has shown signs since her comeback from injury but not set the tour alight.

But she was the beneficiary of the demise of Zheng Qinwen. She eased past Laura Siegemund after seeing off Anastasia Potapova and Yue Yuan and set up a clash with Donna Vekic.

Many would've expected Sabalenka v Vekic to then emerge instead of Qinwen when she went out but Pavlyuchenkova paid heed to that with a 7-6, 6-0 win in emphatic style. She then caused Sabalenka a great deal of bother in a match that perhaps given the Keys factor in winning the title was kind of forgotten about.

But she has gained some steam in recent months since the US hard court season and it came together in this run superbly.

Eva Lys was a standout story of the tournament.

Eva Lys (Fourth Round)

Last but not least is a certain Eva Lys. From lucky loser status to the fourth round.

She now sits in the top 100 for the first time in her career. A player often with promise but without the breakthrough in a country that aside from Alexander Zverev and doubles success is starved.

Lys has often shown glimmers of hope but left Melbourne a lot richer and also with real confidence. She returned to lose to Petra Martic in Linz this week but whether a flash in the pan or not, it is a week she won't forget.

From being called with 10 minutes notice to replace Anna Kalinskaya to the second week where she faced Iga Swiatek albeit in being well beaten, she emerges from this tournament full of credit and rightfully so.

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