ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka received the WTA Player of the Year award for the first time on Monday after winning two Grand Slam titles and finishing 2024 at No. 1 in the rankings.
In other results of voting by tennis media, Emma Navarro was honored as Most Improved Player, Paula Badosa was named Comeback Player, Lulu Sun was Newcomer of the Year, and Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini were picked as the Doubles Team of the Year.
Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, won the Australian Open in January and the U.S. Open in September, along with two other titles this season, going 56-14 with nearly $10 million in prize money. She overtook Iga Swiatek for the top ranking in October.
Navarro made her debut in the WTA's top 10 in September after making her deepest Grand Slam run at the U.S. Open, where she eliminated defending champion Coco Gauff in the fourth round before losing to Sabalenka in the semifinals.
The 23-year-old Navarro, who grew up in South Carolina and won the 2021 NCAA singles championship at the University of Virginia, won her first tour title at Hobart, Australia, in January, and moved from No. 32 in the rankings at the start of 2024 to No. 8 at the end.
Badosa sat out the last half of 2023 with a back injury but the 27-year-old Spaniard was back near the top of the sport this year, climbing to No. 12 in the rankings, winning the title in Washington and equaling her best result at a Grand Slam tournament by getting to the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Sun went from outside the top 200 in the rankings to a career-best No. 39, highlighted by a quarterfinal showing as a qualifier at Wimbledon in July and a runner-up finish at the Monterrey Open in August. Sun, 23, was born in New Zealand, grew up in Switzerland and helped the University of Texas win an NCAA team championship.
Errani and Paolini won a doubles gold medal for Italy at the Paris Olympics and helped their country win the Billie Jean King Cup. They also reached the French Open doubles final together. In singles, Paolini was the runner-up at both the French Open and Wimbledon.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Lulu Sun of New Zealand plays against Emma Raducanu of Britain during their fourth round match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
FILE - Emma Navarro, of the United States, returns a shot to Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, hugs the trophy after winning the women's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships against Jessica Pegula, of the United States, on Sept. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
Russia’s nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system has entered active service, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday, as negotiators continue to search for a breakthrough in peace talks to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Troops held a brief ceremony to mark the occasion in neighboring Belarus where the missiles have been deployed, the ministry said. It did not say how many missiles had been deployed or give any other details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in December that the Oreshnik would enter combat duty this month. He made the statement at a meeting with top Russian military officers, where he warned that Moscow will seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s demands in peace talks.
The announcement comes at a critical time for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Zelenskyy at his Florida resort Sunday and insisted that Kyiv and Moscow were “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement.
However, negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, including whose forces withdraw from where in Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. Trump noted that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations could still collapse.
Putin has sought to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength as Ukrainian forces strain to keep back the bigger Russian army.
At a meeting with senior military officers Monday, Putin emphasized the need to create military buffer zones along the Russian border. He also claimed that Russian troops were advancing in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine and pressing their offensive in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Moscow first used the Oreshnik, which is Russian for “hazelnut tree,” against Ukraine in November 2024, when it fired the experimental weapon at a factory in Dnipro that built missiles when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
Putin has praised the Oreshnik’s capabilities, saying that its multiple warheads, which plunge toward a target at speeds up to Mach 10, are immune to being intercepted.
He warned the West that Moscow could use it against Ukraine’s NATO allies who've allowed Kyiv to use their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
Russia’s missile forces chief has also declared that the Oreshnik, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, has a range allowing it to reach all of Europe.
Intermediate-range missiles can fly between 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles). Such weapons were banned under a Soviet-era treaty that Washington and Moscow abandoned in 2019.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, Russian troops line up at a base in Belarus where the Oreshnik missile system was deployed in Belarus. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, Russian solders camouflage one of the trucks of the Russia's Oreshnik missile system with a net during training in an undisclosed location in Belarus. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, A Russia's Oreshnik missile system is seen during a training in an undisclosed location in Belarus. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, A Russia's Oreshnik missile system is seen during a training in an undisclosed location in Belarus. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, A Russia's Oreshnik missile system is seen during a training in an undisclosed location in Belarus. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
