Editor’s note: As part of the 2025 WTA Fan Awards series, we’re inviting fans to vote on their favorite players, matches and moments from this season. All categories are open, so check wtatennis.com/awards to make your picks. 

For  Monday, we’re asking you to vote on your favorite WTA 500 moment of the year. 

Venus Williams makes winning comeback in Washington, D.C.

Venus Williams powers past Stearns to notch landmark D.C. win

As of the start of July, the prevailing opinion in the tennis world was that Venus Williams had quietly retired. The legendary champion had not played in 15 months, had not won a match in 23 months and had given no indication of any return to professional tennis. Not for the first time, Venus was to prove the tennis world wrong. The 45-year-old took a wild card into Washington, and — striking the ball with her customary relish — defeated No. 34-ranked Peyton Stearns to become the oldest player to win a WTA match since a 47-year-old Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon 2004. On top of that, Venus reached the doubles quarterfinals alongside Leylah Fernandez, who had not yet been born when Venus won her fourth major crown at the 2001 US Open. Don’t call it a farewell tour, though: the ageless Venus has been announced in January’s Auckland field, which will mark her participation in a record 33rd consecutive WTA season.

Marketa Vondrousova captures Berlin title in second tournament back from injury

Champions Reel: How Marketa Vondrousova won Berlin 2025

One of the greatest tennis injustices of our era has been Marketa Vondrousova’s injury-prone career. The Czech, a former junior No. 1, made her WTA debut in 2016 — but has managed to compete across a full season just once so far. That was in 2023, when she won Wimbledon. A year after that, she underwent shoulder surgery. This year, Vondrousova has actually made two comebacks — her initial return in January proved too soon, and she had to take another three months off — which makes her Berlin title run, two tournaments into the second of those, even more remarkable. It started with an upset of Australian Open champion Madison Keys, included her first career defeat of a reigning World No. 1 over Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals and ended in a 7-6(10), 4-6, 6-2 barnburner of a final against Wang Xinyu. Ranked No. 164 at the time, Vondrousova was the lowest-ranked champion at WTA 500 level or above in 2025.

Jelena Ostapenko improves to 6-0 vs. Swiatek en route to Stuttgart title

Champions Reel: How Jelena Ostapenko won Stuttgart 2025

You can always count on Jelena Ostapenko to do the most. The Latvian doesn’t just play aggressively; she goes for broke at all times, then goes for more. It’s a strategy that isn’t conducive to consistency — except, it seems, when she has one of the most dominant players of our era across the net. Iga Swiatek is usually used to dishing out 6-0 sets, but in the Stuttgart quarterfinals she fell to 0-6 against Ostapenko after a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 loss. It completed Ostapenko’s surface sweep of wins over Swiatek, whom she has now defeated on grass, hard courts and clay; no other active player is unbeaten in multiple matches against Swiatek. And she wasn’t done there: Ostapenko went on to capture her ninth career title, notching her first win in four meetings over Aryna Sabalenka in the final and becoming one of four players to defeat both the World No. 1 and World No. 2 in the same tournament this year.

Belinda Bencic’s full-circle Abu Dhabi title four months after returning from maternity leave

Champions Reel: How Belinda Bencic won Abu Dhabi 2025

Comebacks from maternity leave have, in 2025, become normalized on the WTA Tour. But even in that context, Belinda Bencic’s return has been remarkable. The Swiss player gave birth to daughter Bella in April 2024. Six months later, she returned to professional action in an ITF tournament in Hamburg. At the start of 2025, she began to compete at tour level again. In her third tournament, she made the Australian Open fourth round, and in her fourth she claimed her ninth career title in Abu Dhabi. Bencic, ranked No. 157 and competing as a wild card, posted the second 6-0, 6-0 victory of her career in the second round over Veronika Kudermetova, and notched her first Top 5 win in two years against Elena Rybakina in the semifinals. It was a full-circle moment following her 2023 Abu Dhabi title, and foreshadowed a spectacular season, including her first Wimbledon semifinal, in which she rose over 900 places in the rankings to finish at No. 11.

Iva Jovic, 17, wins Guadalajara to become youngest current WTA titlist

Champions Reel: How Iva Jovic won Guadalajara 2025

Iva Jovic’s transition from the junior circuit to the WTA Tour has been as smooth as the 17-year-old American’s groundstrokes this year. She ended 2024 as the junior No. 2, but outside the WTA Top 200. She entered the Top 100 in June after winning the Ilkley WTA 125 title, and after compiling a 40-18 record across all levels, she’s finished 2025 at No. 35. The highlight of her season came in Guadalajara, where she captured her first title in just her 10th main draw. Much of Jovic’s run felt like a foreshadowing of future rivalries against fellow young talents: she saved a match point against 20-year-old Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva in the quarterfinals, then came through a top-quality semifinal against 19-year-old Nikola Bartunkova — matchups that few would be surprised to see recur on bigger stages to come. For the moment, Jovic is the youngest title-holder on the WTA Tour.