It was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean National Tennis Center were pulsing with activity. The top half of the 2025 U.S. Open men’s third round was underway and eight compelling matches were scheduled.
By the end of the afternoon, however, three of those matches had ended prematurely when Flavio Cobolli, Daniel Altmaier and Leandro Riedi — all of whom had played grueling five-set matches in the previous round — retired midmatch because of injuries. The day before, Ben Shelton had also pulled out with a left shoulder injury.
The same thing happened in the fall at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, where three of the four men’s quarterfinals ended early when Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov all retired in the middle of their matches. The next day, Ugo Humbert stopped in the midst of his semifinal because of back pain.
The 2025 tennis season will be remembered for some scintillating story lines, including the Jannik Sinner-Carlos Alcaraz rivalry and the re-emergence of Amanda Anisimova. But it was also marred by battered bodies and bruised psyches, the likely result of too many two-week tournaments and a season that began in Australia in late December 2024 and, for some, didn’t end until the Davis Cup in November.
“I’ve personally always felt that tennis deserves a proper off-season, a proper vacation and a proper training time, which we don’t really have,” Alexander Zverev, the third-ranked player, said during the Laver Cup in September. “For me, it’s just too dense, too much from start to finish.”
For Alex de Minaur, the travel has been particularly grueling this year. He went from the U.S. Open in New York to Sydney, Australia, for a Davis Cup match to San Francisco for the Laver Cup to ATP events in China, all within one month. He ended his season at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
“It’s a lot of traveling, a lot of playing in different conditions, different continents,” de Minaur said in an interview in September. “Sometimes the body needs a little rest, not only physically but mentally as well.”
Some players, like Jack Draper, Tommy Paul, Holger Rune and Hubert Hurkacz, were struck by debilitating injuries that ended their seasons prematurely. Draper, who won the ATP 1000 event in Indian Wells, Calif., en route to a career-high No. 4 ranking, suffered from a bone bruise in his arm that forced him to withdraw from the U.S. Open and forgo the rest of the year. Paul, who reached the top 10 for the first time in 2025, suffered from a foot injury after playing back-to-back five-set matches at the U.S. Open and was out for the rest of the season. Rune ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in Stockholm and Hurkacz had knee surgery in July.
Then there were those who struggled mentally.
Frances Tiafoe was ranked No. 16 in mid-January but, after failing to win a singles match following the U.S. Open, took himself out of competition for the remainder of the year. Stefanos Tsitsipas, a former runner-up at the Australian and French Opens, complained of back pain and burnout and ended his season by late October.
Neither the ATP nor the WTA have done much to streamline the tours. With the popularity of combined two-week, 1000-level events in Indian Wells and Miami, the tours extended the Canadian and Cincinnati Opens to 12 days each in 2025. That meant that players were away from home for more time than ever.
“They should just shorten the season, that’s it,” the sixth-ranked Taylor Fritz said in an interview during the Laver Cup. “We can complain about how players pick and choose what they want, but it’s not that easy. There’s points up for grabs and it can affect your ranking. The mental and physical fatigue is very real.”
Several women on the WTA Tour admitted to needing time off for mental health reasons this year. Perhaps emboldened by Anisimova’s decision to take eight months off in 2023 and her triumphant return this year, Danielle Collins, Elina Svitolina, Ons Jabeur, Daria Kasatkina and Beatriz Haddad Maia all halted their seasons early, citing the need for a recharge.
Kasatkina, a former top tenner, wrote on social media in October: “Truth is, I’ve hit a wall and I can’t continue. I need a break. A break from the monotonous daily grind of life on the tour, the suitcases, the results, the pressure, the same faces (sorry, girls) everything that comes with this life. The schedule is too much, mentally and emotionally I am at breaking point and sadly, I am not alone.”
Anisimova had felt the same way two years ago, but this year, she was the feel-good story.
After winning a WTA 1000 event in Doha, she reached the final at Wimbledon, beating top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals before losing to Iga Swiatek in the final. Anisimova avenged that loss by beating Swiatek in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, but then lost the championship match to Sabalenka. She ended the year ranked a career-high No. 4.
There were other bright moments for the women. Madison Keys won her first major at the Australian Open, Coco Gauff captured her second at the French Open, Swiatek won her first Wimbledon and Sabalenka ended the year ranked No. 1 for the second time in a row. Elena Rybakina, who struggled most of the season, barely qualified for the WTA Finals and then won the title.
For the first time in more than 20 years, four American women — Gauff, Anisimova, Jessica Pegula and Keys — ended the season ranked in the world’s top 10. The last time that happened was in 2004, when Lindsay Davenport, Serena and Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati all finished in the top 10.
Few players compete at their highest level in their late 30s. But at age 38, Novak Djokovic has continued to break records. Djokovic, who is still one short of breaking Margaret Court’s record of 24 majors, won his 100th and 101st career titles in 2025, leaving him just shy of Jimmy Connors’s record 109 and Roger Federer’s 103. He reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, but lost to Sinner at the French Open and Wimbledon and to Alcaraz at the U.S. Open.
He did beat Alcaraz at the Australian Open, but then retired against Zverev because of a leg injury. Djokovic ended the year ranked No. 4 and admitted that he might no longer be capable of beating the world’s top two.
“They’re just too good, playing on a really high level,” Djokovic said after his loss at the U.S. Open. “I can only do as much as I can do. Yeah, it will be very difficult for me in the future to overcome the hurdles of Sinner, Alcaraz, in the best-of-five at the Grand Slams.”
Alcaraz and Sinner captivated audiences worldwide. They met in six finals this year, including at the French Open, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the ATP Finals.
Alcaraz was victorious in four of those meetings, helping him earn the year-end No. 1 ranking. But Sinner, who was off the tour from late January until early May because of a three-month suspension for doping in 2024, won at Wimbledon, handing Alcaraz his first loss in a major final. He also beat him in their last match of the season in Turin, Italy.
By far the most captivating match of the season was the French Open final that Alcaraz won 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) in 5:29, the longest match in Roland Garros history. Saving three match points in the fourth set, Alcaraz slumped onto the red clay court when he closed out the match with a running forehand down-the-line passing shot.
Alcaraz and Sinner pulled out of the Davis Cup final, but Spain and Italy still met for the title.
In a season in which injuries and broken spirits dominated, it somehow seemed fitting that Italy, led by Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini, won its third consecutive Davis Cup over the Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Jaume Munar. No one in the highly partisan stands seemed to mind that neither Sinner nor Alcaraz was present.
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