World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka claimed her second Brisbane International title, enjoying a perfect start to her 2025 Hologic WTA Tour season. On Sunday, Sabalenka defeated 21-year-old qualifier Polina Kudermetova 4-6 in the final, 6:3, 6:2 and secured her 18th career title.

Sabalenka won her first Brisbane title in 2023 when the event was held in Adelaide. In the final she defeated another qualifier, Linda Noskova. Last year she narrowly failed in the final against Elena Rybakina.

Brisbane is Sabalenka’s fourth title on Australian soil. She will next take that confidence with her to Melbourne, where she is the two-time defending Australian Open champion. The 26-year-old is aiming to become the first woman to win three Australian Opens in a row since Martina Hingis dominated the tournament from 1997 to 1999.

Seeded No. 1 in Brisbane, Sabalenka defeated Renata Zarazua, Yulia Putintseva, Marie Bouzkova, Mirra Andreeva and Kudermetova.

Kudermetova survived qualifying and overcame a difficult draw to reach her first WTA final. This week she recorded the first top-10 win of her career when she defeated No. 9 Daria Kasatkina 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the round of 16. She defeated Wang Xinyu, Liudmila Samsonova, Ashlyn Krueger, and Anhelina Kalinina won five consecutive matches for the first time in her WTA career.

Kudermetova, the younger sister of former No. 9 Veronika Kudermetova, showed signs of an impending breakthrough at the end of the 2024 season. As a qualifier, she reached the quarterfinals in Seoul and then ended her WTA season with a semifinal run in Merida, improving her ranking well beyond the top 100.

Kudermetova showed enormous confidence in the biggest fight of her young career. She refused to capitulate after Sabalenka took an early break and maintained her aggressive base position to build cumulative rally pressure on the world No. 1. As Sabalenka failed to push Kudermetova back into a more defensive position, she found it difficult to create space on the pitch.

After saving two break points to stay within a break of Sabalenka, Kudermetova broke out and leveled the first set at 3-3 before poor service play from Sabalenka suddenly handed Kudermetova a set point. With her serve at 5:4, Sabalenka played too passively and Kudermetova broke on her second set point and stole the set.

But after losing her first set of the tournament, Sabalenka started quickly to ensure she wouldn’t lose a second set. She fell just five points off her serve in the second set, allowing her to confidently attack her returns and clean up her baseline game. After forcing the game into a deciding set, Sabalenka raced towards the finish line to complete the victory after 1 hour and 47 minutes.