Sabalenka, Medvedev, Swiatek, Bencic, Bublik: Who had the most significant win of week one?

What’s the right metaphor for tennis’s opening week? From zero to 60 in 10 seconds flat? A fire hose of results? Shot out of a cannon?

Whichever you choose, you get the point: There are a lot of events and matches to watch, a lot of scores to process, and not much time to do it before the season’s first Grand Slam starts.

This is especially true if you live outside Australia or the South Pacific. Anyone waking up in Europe or the States today will find a barrage of finals to catch up on.

To help you sort it all out, here’s a recap of all five, ranked in ascending order of importance.

Auckland: Elina Svitolina d. Wang Xinyu 6-3, 7-6 (6)

There was some sentimental symmetry to Svitolina’s 19th career title: Her husband, Gael Monfils, won the men’s edition of this tournament last year.

This time Monfils, who is entering his final season at age 39, was in the crowd to watch his wife repeat his title run from 2025. Svitolina is 31, a mom, and starting her 18th season, but she looked as hungry as ever through the week. She dropped just one set, and came back from 1-3 down in the final tiebreaker against Wang on Sunday. She improved her record in finals to an elite-level 19-4.

Svitolina hasn’t felt like a major factor for a little while now, and she ended 2025 with four straight losses and an injury. But, somewhat to my surprise, she came into this week ranked 13th. A year ago she made the Australian Open quarterfinals for the third time. She could do some damage there again.

Hong Kong: Alexander Bublik d. Lorenzo Musetti 7-6 (2), 6-3

Alexander Bublik knows how to make a New Year’s resolution he can keep.

He says the “only goal for this season was to achieve the Top 10.” Which is convenient, because he began the year ranked 11th. One tournament in, his resolution has been kept.

“In the first week I’ve won the title and I’m into the Top 10,” he said after beating Musetti. “If you had told me that last April I would never have believed you.”

Last April, Bublik was down to 80th in the world and starting to wonder whether he belonged in the dog-eat-dog world of pro tennis at all. Bublik being Bublik, the less he cared about his future, the better he did. And Bublik also being Bublik, when his talent was put to good use, the sky was the limit. He has won five titles since the middle of 2025, and raised his ranking 70 spots.

He showed a little of everything he has against Musetti. The match was a showcase for modern-game shot-making, with the two men alternating between bullet forehands and delicate drops. Bublik, from serve to ground stroke to touch shot, was a little better than Musetti in every facet. Most of the time, he looked like a human tennis-ball cannon.

“It’s a pleasure [to win this title], and I hope to continue this way,” Bublik said.

And that’s the next question. How will the mercurial Russian turned Kazakh handle success? Expectations have weighed on him in the past. But if he continues like this, he’ll be No. 1 on the list of guys that no one wants to see in their draw in Melbourne.

United Cup: Poland d. Switzerland 2-1

Pity Belinda Bencic. She was 9-0 for the week; five wins in singles, four in doubles. She had just beaten a nemesis of hers, Iga Swiatek. She had carried Switzerland to the brink of its first title in this competition. All she and her doubles partner, Jakub Paul, needed to do was survive Poland’s B-team, Katarina Kawa and Jan Zielinski, and she would have a perfect record and her country would have the winner’s trophy. But she and Paul couldn’t do it: Kawa and Zielinski won 6-4, 6-3 to give Poland its much-desired first title after two straight runner-up finishes.

Still, Bencic walks away as one of the week’s winners. After watching her bounce back so quickly—all the way up to No. 11—less than a year after having a baby in 2024, I wondered if bigger things might be in store for this Olympic gold medalist. Bencic may be wondering, too. She showed up with an abbreviated, and improved, first serve, and a commitment to opening up the court with her forehand rather than just rallying with it. At 28, she seems due to make it past the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time.

If Bencic heads for Melbourne on an upswing, Swiatek’s status is shakier. The good news is that she got her first United Cup, a title she may have wanted a little too much on Sunday. “You just want her to take a deep breath,” Laura Robson said of Swiatek, who was too tense for her own good in the final. Iga wasn’t terrible, but she lost her last two matches—to Bencic and Coco Gauff—and told her coach at one point that she “couldn’t feel” her forehand. That’s what happened, and what got her into trouble, the first half of last year.

Brisbane: Daniil Medvedev d. Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 7-6 (1)

A new year meant a new look for Daniil Medvedev: Shorter hair, a green shirt, unexpectedly white socks and sneakers. The Russian will never be mistaken for a fashionista, but the important thing is that outfit, and the new attitude that came with it, worked. He won his first title in Brisbane, which should give him confidence that he can bounce back from a mostly disastrous 2025.

Medvedev turns 30 next month, and even with new coach Thomas Johansson in his corner, his game isn’t going to change much at this stage. But against Nakashima, he played a little farther up in the court, a little more on the front foot, and without any fear of approaching the net. Nerves did catch up to him; he was broken while serving for the match. But, in another new twist, Medvedev kept calm and carried on. He was flawless in the second-set tiebreak.

He even celebrated: Just a quick fist-pump and no smile, but that counts as real positive reinforcement for him. This was his 22nd title, at his 22nd different tournament.

“Dear ATP tour,” he tweeted afterward, “can you please make more cities? I am running out…”

Medvedev can look morose on court, but his 2025 travails haven’t discouraged him; instead, they seem to have made him hungrier and more proactive. Now he’ll move on to another city—Melbourne—where, despite his best efforts and a couple of very close calls, he hasn’t won yet.

Brisbane: Aryna Sabalenka d. Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-3

This wasn’t Sunday’s most exciting or surprising result. Aryna Sabalenka, world No. 1, did what she’s supposed to do by winning a title without dropping a set. Still, when it comes to next week’s Australian Open, this may be the most important thing to happen in week one.

It wasn’t just the result. It was the way Sabalenka achieved it. She showed an ability to take a punch, and then raise her game at the business end of a set. Kostyuk, after a nervous start, threw that punch in the middle of the first set, and briefly frazzled Sabalenka, who doesn’t like when someone takes control of the points from her. But rather than melt down, as we’ve seen from her plenty of times in the past, she reclaimed control, and cruised through the closing stages of the match with no fuss.

“I kind of like changed my game style,” Sabalenka said of her transformation into a steady No. 1 player. “Now I’m not only the aggressive player. I can play at the net, I can be in the defense, I can use my slice, I have a good touch.”

“I’m super happy to see that things are clicking together.”

Sabalenka won Brisbane last year, then went to the final at the Australian Open. With Gauff’s serve and Swiatek’s forehand currently in flux, she’s the favorite to go one step farther this time.