The undoubted highlight for New Zealand tennis in 2025 was Erin Routliffe winning her second US Open doubles title, once again in partnership with Gaby Dabrowski, but that good news was overtaken by the announcement that they were ending their collaboration after failing to defend their title at the WTA Tour finals in Riyadh. It took until 29th December for the worst-kept secret in tennis to become a reality, with Routliffe and her best friend Asia Muhammad being announced as the top seeds for the ASB Classic and entering the Australian Open as a pair. Having already won a Masters title together, at Cincinnati last year, expectations will be high that the pair can build on their previous work together.
The US Open was only one of four titles that Routliffe won during the year, as she also defended her Cincinnati title (this time with Dabrowski), as well as winning the WTA 500 tournaments in Charleston and Stuttgart (where she and Dabrowski played together on clay for the very first time). While that was an amazing year, it was James Watt who collected the most trophies, with two ITF M25s in Australia being followed by five Challenger titles in North America and China, all of the latter in partnership with Finn Reynolds.
Between them, 15 players won 29 senior and five junior titles, although four of the latter went to expat Kiwi Jamie Mackenzie, who now lives in and represents Germany. What was rather concerning was that just two players – Lulu Sun and Anton Shepp – were ale to win senior singles titles at any level. The full list of titles won is (bold italics indicates first title of this type at this level or above; CAPITALS indicates first title of any kind above J100):
Grand Slam:
6th September: US Open doubles – Erin Routliffe (and Gaby Dabrowski)
WTA 1000:
18th August: Cincinnati (USA) doubles – Erin Routliffe (and Gaby Dabrowski)
WTA 500:
7th April: Charleston (USA) doubles – Erin Routliffe (and Jelena Ostapenko)
21st April: Stuttgart (Germany) doubles – Erin Routliffe (and Gaby Dabrowski)
ATP 250:
11th January: Auckland doubles – Michael Venus (and Nikola Mektić)
WTA 125:
28th September: Jingshan (China) singles – Lulu Sun
ATP Challenger:
8th June: Tyler (USA) doubles – Finn Reynolds and James Watt
6th July: Cary (USA) doubles – Finn Reynolds and James Watt
20th July: Granby (Canada) doubles – Finn Reynolds and James Watt
5th October: Tiburon (USA) doubles – Finn Reynolds and James Watt
11th October: Jinan (China) doubles – Finn Reynolds and James Watt
ITF W50:
5th May: Lopota (Georgia) doubles – Paige Hourigan (and Rutuja Bhosale)
ITF W35:
22nd February: Burnie (Tasmania) doubles – Monique Barry (and Elena Micic)
1st March: Launceston (Tasmania) doubles – Monique Barry (and Elena Micic)
5th October: Darwin (Northern Territory) doubles – Monique Barry (and Gabriella Da Silva-Fick)
1st November: Brisbane doubles – Monique Barry (and Natsumi Kawaguchi)
ITF M25:
22nd February: Burnie (Tasmania) doubles – James Watt (and Matt Hulme)
15th March: Mildura (Victoria) doubles – James Watt (and Matt Hulme)
22nd March: Swan Hill (Victoria) doubles – Ajeet Rai (and Joshua Charlton)
15th June: Wichita (USA) doubles – MATTHEW SHEARER (and Ozan Baris)
11th October: Perth doubles – Ajeet Rai (and Finn Bass)
ITF M15:
16th February: Monastir (Tunisia) doubles – Matt Donald (CZE) (and Tadeas Paroulek)
16th August: Ystad (Sweden) doubles – ANTON SHEPP (and Oliver Johansson)
24th August: Båstad (Sweden) doubles – Anton Shepp (and Oliver Johansson)
18th October: Heraklion (Greece) doubles – REECE FALCK (and Maxwell Benson)
14th December: Hamilton singles – ANTON SHEPP
ITF W15:
15th June: Gdansk (Poland) doubles – Valentina Ivanov (and Johanne Svendsen)
20th July: Kursumlijska Banja (Serbia) doubles – Valentina Ivanov (and Rebecca Munk Mortensen)
16th August: Tweed Heads (NSW) doubles – Monique Barry (and Gabriella Da Silva-Fick)
ITF J500:
25th May: Milan (Italy) doubles – Jamie Mackenzie (GER) (and Niels McDonald)
ITF J300:
15th June: Bamberg (Germany) singles – Jamie Mackenzie (GER)
20th September: Beijing (China) doubles – Jamie Mackenzie (GER) (and Tito Chavez)
21st September: Beijing (China) singles – Jamie Mackenzie (GER)
ITF J200:
31st August: Sydney doubles – CODY ATKINSON (and Jake Dembo)