Why Iga Swiatek is Sam Querrey's pick over Aryna Sabalenka & Coco Gauff for WTA Player of the Year award

Iga Swiatek finished the 2025 tennis season as the World No. 2 in women's singles, with Aryna Sabalenka taking the year-end top spot for the second straight year and Coco Gauff claiming the third position. However, despite this reality, American former ATP star Sam Querrey recently named the Pole as his pick for the 2025 WTA Player of the Year.

Speaking on a recently-released episode of the Nothing Major podcast, which he co-hosts with compatriots and former ATP rivals John Isner, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson, Querrey explained his opinion by citing Swiatek's title triumphs at this year's Wimbledon Championships and Cincinnati Open.

According to the 38-year-old, these triumphs showed that the Pole is now a complete player who can win on any surface. Before her Wimbledon success, Iga Swiatek was widely regarded as a player who excels on clay but tends to occasionally struggle on grass and fast hard courts.

"For me, give me Iga Swiatek. We have always talked about how she has dominated on clay, she kind of sucks on the grass, she will never make a run at Wimbledon and then she won Wimbledon this year and completely changed that narrative," Querrey said (from 29:40).

"She won Cinci too, which is historically somewhat of a fast hard court, so I feel like now when you talk about her game you say she can win on any surface, and that started this year after winning Wimbledon," he added.

The winners of the 2025 WTA Awards are set to be announced soon as part of the WTA Awards Week. The nominees have already been announced and the voting process is underway as well. Last year, Sabalenka won the Player of the Year award.

"Aryna Sabalenka was the talk of every tournament" - Steve Johnson picks Belarusian for WTA Player of the Year award over Iga Swiatek

Aryna Sabalenka in action at the 2025 WTA Finals (Source: Getty)

Unlike Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson feels that Aryna Sabalenka, and not Iga Swiatek, deserves to win the WTA Player of the Year award once again this year due to the incredible consistency she showed throughout 2025. Just before Querrey voiced his take on the subject on the Nothing Major podcast, Johnson said:

"Sabalenka. She was wire to wire. She was number one in the world. She missed out on a couple of finals but she was the talk of every tournament. Finals of Australia, finals of the French, semis of Wimbledon, won the US Open, finals of the year-end. So for her to be number one the entire year. She probably could have had a couple of other big titles but still an amazing year to be dominating the women’s game."

Sabalenka came close to winning the WTA Finals title this year as well. While Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff exited the prestigious year-end tournament following their respective Round Robin phase matches, the Belarusian went all the way to the final. Unfortunately for the World No. 1, Elena Rybakina got the better of her at the last hurdle.