Carlos Alcaraz, Belinda Bencic or Denis Shapovalov: Whose title run could be the most significant for 2025?

February is the season of small victories. Lots of them. Every week brings us multiple events, played on multiple continents and surfaces. Few will be mentioned at the end of the year, and even fewer will be recorded in the sport’s history books.

Sometimes, though, they can be building blocks. In 2022, Iga Swiatek started her career-changing 37-match win streak in Doha. In 2023, Daniil Medvedev won the first of his five titles that season in Rotterdam. Last year Taylor Fritz began his rise into the Top 5 with a victory in Delray that presaged his runner-up performance at the US Open five months later.

Will we be talking about any of this weekend’s wins in the same way later in 2025? There were three of note: Carlos Alcaraz won the first indoor title of his career, in Rotterdam; Belinda Bencic won her first title since returning to the tour as a mom late last year; and Denis Shapovalov came from close to nowhere to tear his way through the field in Dallas.

Carlos Alcaraz wins his first indoor title

Usually, an Alcaraz title run wouldn’t be news. He’s only 21, and this is already his 17th tournament victory. It’s a bigger deal when he loses than when he wins. But Rotterdam was different, and promising, for a couple of reasons.

First, as mentioned, this was both his first indoor final, and his first indoor title. That may seem hard to believe, but it’s exactly as many indoor titles as Alcaraz’s countryman, Rafael Nadal, won in his entire career. It seems like Spanish players like the elements, and don’t like how quickly points can play out in the controlled conditions of a closed arena.

“I knew that I [could] play really good tennis on indoor courts, it was just about time,” Alcaraz said. “I had not too much experience playing on indoor courts. There are a lot of players who play better tennis on indoor courts than me, but I am improving and it’s a really important week.”

Like Nadal, who never won the ATP Finals, Alcaraz hasn’t done much damage during the homestretch of the season, when tournaments head indoors. Maybe this will make him believe in his chances a little more at the tail end of 2025.

Perhaps as important, Alcaraz won three matches—over Botic van de Zandschulp, Hubert Hurkacz and Alex De Minaur—in three sets. Each time he won the first, lost the second, and came back to win the third. It hasn’t always been the case that Alcaraz has been able to right the ship when it goes off course, but in Rotterdam he did. These weren’t the flashy routs that we often see from him; they were workmanlike, and required a steady emotional state. That will come in handy as the stages get bigger in the coming month.

Denis Shapovalov steamrolls from out of nowhere to his biggest win

If you were looking for flash, and for a guy who loves his indoor courts, you could find him on the other side of the Atlantic, at the Dallas Open. That’s where Denis Shapovalov, a semi-forgotten name at 25, came from the land of the unseeded to steamroll a strong field.

Shapovalov’s title run was one of gathering, and eventually unstoppable, momentum. He struggled to get past Miomir Kecmanovic in three sets in the first round, then seemed destined to fall to top seed Taylor Fritz in his second match. But after escaping in a third-set tiebreaker, Shapovalov’s confidence grew with each giant swing of his racquet. He won a bagel set over a solid opponent in Tomas Machac on the quarters, and then out-hit Tommy Paul and Casper Ruud, the No. 2 and 3 seeds, in the semis and the final.

“I do think the win against Taylor gave me a lot of confidence,” said Shapovalov, who won his third career title (all of them indoors), and first at a 500. “It really gave me that belief that I’m able to beat these guys again.”

Shapovalov has always had the guns—the hooking lefty serve, the leaping one-handed backhand, the forehand missile. But his ground strokes are low-margin shots, and his confidence tends to fly here and there with the breeze. Maybe it makes sense that he loves the indoors, where no breezes blow.

If Shapovalov can keep it going outdoors, the ATP will have one of its most exciting shot-makers back. At the start of the week, it may have seemed like the Canadian’s best days were behind him. Now at 25, it’s possible to imagine that he has many good years ahead.

Belinda Bencic keeps her comeback running smoothly

To say the 27-year-old Bencic has many good years ahead feels like an understatement at the moment. So far, the new mom has made coming back after having a baby look easy. Last month she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open. This past week she won her second title in Abu Dhabi in three years, beating top seed Elena Rybakina along the way.

Bencic has always had good tennis DNA. Her anticipation, positioning, timing and ability to take the ball early come naturally. So it’s not a total surprise that she would make a smooth transition back to the tour. It was her emotions, and her inability to control them, that often held her back. Now, she says, that feels like less of a problem.

“I have high expectations of myself and I have dreams and goals,” Bencic told wtatennis.com. “But I have to say I basically won in life. I’m here in tournaments and it feels much more relaxed.”

“It feels like I can play a little bit more clear and with less pressure on myself. I feel like I was always the one standing a little bit in the way of trying to do too well. So right now, I’m really working and I still feel like I can reach more things.”

As with everything that happens at this time of year, Bencic’s Abu Dhabi win may not be remembered for long. But she just made her 2025 campaign much more interesting to follow.