These WTA players leave 2025 Australian Open with more questions than answers

As the Australian Open ends for another year with Aryna Sabalenka facing Madison Keys, they emerge as the two best players this tournament and after both winning titles already this season have emerged with the most credit. But what about those who leave with more answers than questions?

A lot of the top names fell early at the Australian Open this time around with many having previous success at this tournament or in the last six months. But are these players having a crisis or is it just a momentary blip based off one match. We look into some of those in our analysis of the tournament from the perspective of those who perhaps need some wins in the coming weeks.

Zheng Qinwen

This time last year, Zheng Qinwen was getting surprised by Li Na after reaching her career summit of a Grand Slam final. Everything was rosy and she continued in that vein winning the Olympic gold medal and also the WTA Finals championship match against Coco Gauff.

But she has perhaps been a victim of her own success and also playing a nightmare of a player in Laura Siegemund. A real tactician who can disrupt anyone's rhythm especially Zheng Qinwen who in truth perhaps didn't come in best prepared.

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She didn't play any lead ups. Initially planning to play United Cup, she owed it to the fact that she had a super long season having played in Riyadh after dominating the tour in the back end during the Asian hard court swing.

That in itself brought her the opportunity to play in the WTA Finals ahead of Emma Navarro who herself emerged back from the shadows during this tournament. While Qinwen perhaps retreated back into them.

There won't be panic yet but it isn't the best start. Especially given that in the case of Qinwen, she didn't have her coach Pere Riba with her during the tournament as he had surgery. So she was hampered from the start when she withdrew from the United Cup.

Also there is added pressure now on her shoulders. She becomes the hunted over the hunter. One of the elite now in the game and also one with further sponsorship commitments. Now one of the highest paid female athletes in the world, she has to appease the likes of Dior as well as perform on court so the balancing act will be one that will see her excel or end up like another player on this list.

A head scratching return to Melbourne for Zheng Qinwen

Elena Rybakina

On the face of it, Elena Rybakina did not have a poor tournament. She reached the fourth round after spending most of last season injured and ill but the noise off court and those issues are too much to ignore.

Losing to Madison Keys in the fourth round, Rybakina was blighted by injury and was a shadow of herself in many ways during that tie. She promptly also left Goran Ivanisevic who was her coach for a cup of coffee after such promise in their announcement.

A player always with her future up in the air despite such obvious talent, there is one glaring factor and that is Stefano Vukov. The ex-coach of Rybakina was dispensed of after the US Open or so we thought. Only for him to pop back up again as a member of Rybakina's 'support team' and he was promptly banned by the WTA pending an investigation into Code of Conduct violations.

Elena Rybakina and the Vukov factor dominate the sport.

Rybakina is adamant that Vukov never has been abusive and that the allegations are made by people who have no knowledge of the situation. But whether you stand on her side or against it, it is affecting her on court and will until it is resolved.

The findings are due after the Australian Open and with Rybakina set to play Abu Dhabi, we will likely know by then whether she needs to find a new coach or even will boycott the tour. That hasn't been ruled out in articles circulating about the situation. If Vukov has no grounds to be banned, the merry go round will continue with the Croat likely to be rehired by Rybakina with still questions marks looming.

Being a Rybakina fan is often a tough school, but the Australian Open proved that this is still very much the case.

Emma Raducanu

It is perhaps a cliche at this point to talk about Emma Raducanu. The Brit has been hounded by the press and the expectation sky high after winning the US Open.

Not able to put a sustained run together since that point with injuries aplenty, she sits in the Rybakina camp of sorts albeit without any further success. But there are further doubts after the Australian Open.

A third round showing is good on paper given that she came into the tournament in her words having pool rehab in Auckland weeks before after withdrawing from the ASB Classic.

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But despite getting thrashed by Iga Swiatek, it is the post Australian Open news of coach Nick Cavaday having to depart her team that perhaps adds the question marks again. She now has to find a new coach again to impart new ideas and messes up any consistency.

While it can't be helped in this case as Cavaday himself need some time away for health issues, it goes to show that the luck is not in.

Like the next player though, she has a chance to put it right. She plays the Singapore Tennis Open next week and despite looking for a new coach plays in a pretty open field so the chance for progression again does seem likely on the face of it. How she gets on from here though will be an ongoing storyline.

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Anna Kalinskaya

That next player is Anna Kalinskaya. The Russian who ascended to prominence after many injury problems last year by winning Dubai and becoming a real fixture of top 15. She dropped to 18th after failing to defend her Australian Open Quarter-Final run.

But also like Rybakina and Raducanu before her, it is illness and injury that is always an issue. She had to pull out of her first round match with Kimberly Birrell with a virus.

This in itself worked for one player and that was Eva Lys who had a dream run to the fourth round. But Kalinskaya needs to get back to her best and quickly with points aplenty dropping off.

She has been in the press a lot in the past year with her relationship with Jannik Sinner courting interest but she wants to let her racquet do the talking over her personal life. She gets the chance to do that in SIngapore next week and then the road to defending Dubai continues where she reached the final.

A question mark similar to the prior two whether she even plays week on week is never good for consistent form.

Anna Kalinskaya helped Eva Lys have a dream run but also added more questions than answers to her own career trajectory.

Jasmine Paolini

This one perhaps isn't as much of an issue as others but with big points being defended starting with Dubai and heading into Roland Garros and Wimbledon, Jasmine Paolini who is currently fourth could drop like a stone or rise again in the coming months.

Her run at the Australian Open was a strange one as anyone can lose to Elina Svitolina but like with Zheng Qinwen, she has new pressure on her back. Being a top five player now and one of the success stories of 2024 in a similar vain the year before to the player who defeated her means that the rise is great but the fall is stark.

A good showing at the United Cup means there is less cause for concern but an early defeat is never good for confidence and with Dubai to defend, it'll be interesting how close she gets to doing so.

Maria Sakkari

Like Kalinskaya and Raducanu, Maria Sakkari will search for form elsewhere next week when she plays Linz. From World No.3 to World No.31, it is a real clean up job needed for her at this point.

She needs wins and fast. Perhaps not in the best field, she can achieve that but it won't be easy to gain momentum again after such a dent in confidence.

She lost early to Camila Osorio continuing an unwanted record of Grand Slam first round losses and also has more points coming off very soon. She has the final of Indian Wells and the semi-final of Miami to come off where she had a renaissance temporarily with David Witt as coach.

But a shoulder injury and subsequent drop in form saw Sakkari leave the 2024 season pondering. Her start to 2025 won't add too much to that, but grinding lower level tournaments like she did to reach the top three could provide the springboard again. Time will tell.

Marketa Vondrousova

A player like Kalinskaya that didn't even make it to the start line in Melbourne was Marketa Vondrousova who also slides into the Rybakina camp of injury blighted post Grand Slam success.

She saw off Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her first match since Wimbledon who ironically had a great Australian open from there but then lost in a walkover to the rising talent Diana Shnaider. Breaking down though again added doubt and she promptly withdrew from the 2025 Australian Open.

She plays Linz next week but constant wrist and hand issues have derailed her. Vondrousova headed into Wimbledon last year as defending champion and her loss to Jessica Bouzas Maniero set off the train of a fall. She sits 36th now in the rankings and is unlikely to do like her compatriot Karolina Muchova and return suddenly to form overnight.

Iga Swiatek

While finally, Iga Swiatek is perhaps an odd choice given she reached the semi-finals but it is a missed chance again outside of Roland Garros.

Swiatek and Sabalenka seem to play most months in WTA 1000's but have never faced off in a Grand Slam final. That streak continues and outside of Roland Garros and once at Flushing Meadows, it has yet to be a happy hunting ground in Australia.

Without the potential of a CAS appeal hanging over her shoulder, Swiatek unlike Sinner can move on but the once squeaky clean Swiatek now has criticism and also has failed to break through that ceiling at Grand Slams.

While Sabalenka continues to do the opposite aside from at Roland Garros and maybe Wimbledon where she has a better chance to do so. Where she goes from here is simple and a loss to Keys while it might dent her confidence will not be a huge blow. But while miniscule compared to others, the questions still remain.

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