WTA Australian Open Futures 2025

The New Year is here and with that comes the start of the new WTA season for 2025. The 1st major of the year is the Australian Open and it all starts on January 11. Aryna Sabalenka is the defending champion from last season, and she has won the last 2 straight Australian opens. There has been a few times where the tournament has been won by the same woman 3 straight years, but the last woman to do it was Martina Hingis from 1997-1999, so it is going to be tough for Sabalenka to do what has not been done in the new millennium. With the start of the Australian Open just around the corner now, it is time to see who has the best chance of taking home the title this season. 

Aryna Sabalenka +225: Aryna Sabalenka is the player with the best chance at winning the Australian Open Title this year according to the oddsmakers. Aryna Sabalenka is currently ranked number 1 in the world and she had a great 2024. She won both of the hardcourt majors in 2024, winning the Australian Open as well as the US Open, and she has won the last 2 Australian Open Titles as well. She also ended the year playing in great form as she won the Wuhan Open after winning the US Open, but she did fizzle out in the WTA Finals. No one has been better on hardcourt over the last year than Sabalenka, but she could be due for some regression after such a dominant year. Her 2 losses in the WTA Finals came against Gauff and Rybakina who are both top 6 players in the world right now and the motivation for her might not be as strong due to being the B2B defending champion. It is going to be very tough for her to win it again as there are many talented young women who have been improving over the last year, so there is not a lot of value in Sabalenka at this price. 

Iga Swiatek +400: Iga Swiatek is the player with the next best chance at winning the Australian Open Title this year according to the oddsmakers. Iga Swiatek is currently ranked number 2 in the world and she has been having a great 2024. She was ranked number 1 for quite a while before Sabalenka dethroned her, but a lot of Swiatek’s dominance has come on the clay surface. She is the 3 time defending champion of the French Open coming into this year, but the last time she won a major on hardcourt was in the 2022 US Open. That is also the only major title she has ever won on hardcourt in her career. She only made it to the Quarter Final of the US Open last year and she was even worse in the 2024 Australian Open, getting knocked out in the Round of 32. This has also been her worst major by far as she went to the Semi Final in 2022, but other than that, she has failed to make it past the Round of 16 in 5 of the last 6 years. Swiatek is one of the best players in the world and is the best on a clay surface, but she has struggled more on hardcourt and has not had a lot of success in this specific tournament either. There is no real value in Swiatek to win this title this year. 

Coco Gauff +400: Coco Gauff is the player with the next best chance at winning the Australian Open Title this year according to the oddsmakers. Coco Gauff is currently ranked number 3 in the world and she has had a lot of success on the tour considering her age. She is only 20 years old but has already emerged as a dominant force on the WTA Tour. She won her 1st and only major title on hardcourt at the 2023 US Open, but her career is only getting started and she will be looking to take a big step this year. She did not win a major tournament last year, but she finished the year with the 2nd most wins on the WTA Tour, going 54-17 in 2024. She may not have won a major tournament in 2024, but she ended the year playing very well with a title win at the Beijing Open and she also won the WTA Finals, beating Sabalenka in that tournament as well, so she is coming into this year with a lot of confidence. It is only a matter of time until Gauff has a breakout year, and this could be the year that she has it. She has the energy with her age and is already very accomplished for 20 years old. She actually lost in the Semi Final of the Australian Open last year, losing to eventual champion Sabalenka, and after a disappointing exit at the US Open in the Round of 16, she is going to be focused on starting the year off with a win in this tournament. There is a lot of value in Gauff to win the title at this price. 

Elena Rybakina +700: Elena Rybakina is the player with the next best chance at winning the Australian Open Title this year according to the oddsmakers. Elena Rybakina is currently ranked number 6 in the world, but 2024 was not a great year for her. She has only won 1 major title in her career and that was the 2022 Wimbledon. She did not do well in this tournament last year as she was knocked out in the Round of 64, and she has been dealing with some injuries recently as well. A back problem kept her out of the US Open as well as the Olympics, and she did not play any tournaments after the US Open leading up to the WTA Finals. She was awful in the WTA Finals as well, losing 2 of her 3 matches in the tournament. She has not really been playing well leading into this tournament and she has not been a dominant player in the sport either. She has gone on a few runs where she went deep into tournaments, but 2024 was not a year she played well in for most of it and dealing with a back problem is not ideal coming into this major. Rybakina is a good player, but she is not a great player, and there are far better options to make a deep run in this tournament this year. There is no real value in Rybakina to win the title.

Qinwen Zheng +1600: Qinwen Zheng is the player with the next best chance at winning the Australian Open Title this year according to the oddsmakers. Qinwen Zheng did not win any major tournaments in 2024, but she did take home the gold medal at the Olympics. She is currently ranked number 5 in the world and is a young player at 22 years old who has been emerging as a force on the WTA Tour. She played well at the WTA Finals but lost to both Sabalenka and Gauff. Prior to that, she did win the Tokyo Open. She went far in the Wuhan Open as well, but lost to Sabalenka in the Final, and that is not the 1st time she was bested by Sabalenka in 2024 as Zheng also went to the Australian open Final and lost to Sabalenka there. Zheng has some consistency issues, but she has been playing very well coming into this year. The biggest knock on her is her inability to beat the world number 1. Sabalenka is the B2B defending champion of this tournament and if Zheng runs into her at any point, she could be in a lot of trouble as she is 0-4 in her career against Sabalenka on hardcourt. Qinwen Zheng has the potential to be a dark horse in this tournament as she did go to the Final last year and has been in great form recently, Sabalenka is her only real kryptonite though so she will have to avoid a matchup with her. If Sabalenka gets knocked out and Zheng can avoid her in the tournament, Zheng could have a real chance at winning the whole thing. There is some value in Qinwen Zheng to win the title at this price. 

Aryna Sabalenka is the clear favorite in this tournament for a reason as she is the B2B defending champion and has been so good on hardcourt over the last year. There are some talented young women starting to come up though and they have been making names for themselves, they are going to have the hunger to make a run in this tournament as they try to have a breakout year. Sabalenka is obviously going to be a threat in this tournament, but Coco Gauff at +400 has the best value with the way she has been ramping up for this tournament and playing so well over the last few months. Qinwen Zheng at +1600 also has some value as a dark horse as she has a real chance to go deep in the tournament if she can avoid the defending champion. Coco Gauff at +400 is the best option to win the Australian Open followed by Qinwen Zheng at +1600.