Top Sports Moments Of 2025: PSG's UCL Triumph, Greatest French Open Final, New F1 World Champion, And More

To say the year 2025 was a wild one in the sporting world is a bit misleading. This year, perhaps more than others in the recent past, saw some of the biggest upsets, greatest comebacks and a whole host of firsts.

Nothing ever is certain in sports and no one can script how any single match plays out. Whether it is any individual sport or the team game, each match has its own unique charm.

Let's take a look at some of the most talked-about sporting moments from 2025:

Very few moments in football get more talked about than the UEFA Champions League final every year, unless it is a FIFA World Cup year. 2025 is no different!

The 2024-25 Champions League season saw a new champion being crowned in a grand final. This was the first time under a new format. The competition had 36 teams participating and all of them played eight games each against different opponents in a league phase.

All the teams were ranked in a joint group. Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) finished 15th in the group stage and had to play fellow French team Brest in the knockout phase play-offs. They won the two-legged affair 10-0 on aggregate.

In the Round of 16, PSG were drawn against the then in-form team of Europe in Liverpool, who had finished first in the group stages. After outplaying the English team, they lost the first leg 1-0 at home.

They then won the away leg 1-0 to tie the aggregate score. The French side then won the ensuing penalty shootout 4-1 to progress to the quarterfinals. They faced Aston Villa and won 5-4 over the two matches.

PSG again met another English team Arsenal in the semifinals. They won both matches to have a 3-1 aggregate scoreline. It was in the final where they showed their true potential.

Ever since PSG were bought by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011, they have underachieved in football's top European competition despite having a seemingly unlimited budget. They had reached the final only once before in 2020 and had lost to German giants Bayern Munich.

They faced Italian team Inter Milan in the 2025 showdown in Munich on May 31. Inter had overcome much superior teams in Bayern and Barcelona en route to the final. They had experience on their side too as they had lost narrowly to Manchester City in the 2023 final.

But PSG, coached by Spaniard Luis Enrique, produced an absolute masterclass in the final. Inter didn't know what hit them and kept getting hit again and again.

The French champions ran out 5-0 winners. It was the biggest winning margin in a Champions League or European Cup final till date. What was most intriguing was PSG had sold or discarded all their so-called 'superstar' players prior to the season's start.

A young team, coached by an enigmatic manager, defied the odds to create history and win club football's greatest prize.

When the Big Three (Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic) era came to a close, many ardent tennis fans wouldn't have imagined a new era would dawn quite so soon to take the sport ahead.

In fact, Djokovic hasn't even called it a day and still competes at the highest level. But not the top-most level anymore, and definitely not often enough for his fans.

This era belongs to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. The duo won all four men's singles Grand Slam titles in 2025. They met each other in three of the four finals as well. The best of them was at the French Open final.

Sinner and Alcaraz were the top-two seeds and the top-two in the world rankings as they powered their way to the final on June 8 in Paris. The fact that the final saw a two-set comeback isn't enough to claim it as the best.

It's the manner of the comeback that matters even more. Sinner is akin to a machine with his play. Every shot will be precise and brilliantly played. Alcaraz is a maverick! One can't predict which shot he will produce from his locker at any given point.

The Italian Sinner took a crucial 2-0 lead but Spain's Alcaraz clawed one set back. Sinner then looked like he would clinch his first Roland Garros title as he led 5-4 with three match points at 40-0 in the fourth set.

One would expect a machine to finish the match off. But only a maverick would dare defy the odds at that moment. With serve in hand, Alcaraz won five straight points to win the game. The game-winning point was a rasping forehand winner down the line.

He won the set in a tie-break and pushed the match to a fifth-set decider. The final set too was pushed till the 10-point super tiebreaker. The Spaniard won 10-2 to clinch a remarkable final and his second French Open title.

The match lasted five hours 29 minutes, becoming the second longest Grand Slam final in history. Sinner would then win Wimbledon over Alcaraz but it was the Spanish sensation who trumped the Italian juggernaut in the US Open final.

For those who watched the French Open final live or on TV, they will never forget the exhibition of tennis put on by the best two players of the new era.

In Formula One, in the current era, there is only one King - Max Verstappen. The Dutchman had won the four previous driver's championships and looked set to dominate like Lewis Hamilton for a few more years.

The season began well for McLaren as both its racers - Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri - won the first two races. Verstappen would always challenge but his dominant Red Bull Racing team weren't at the races this year.

After years of struggling and becoming close to a laughing stock at times, McLaren finally looked like they could win the team championship title and possibly the driver's title as well.

In a season which ebbed and flowed between these three racers, no one could predict with certainty who would win the title. When both drivers in a team vie for the title, there are bound to be frictions and no one will give an inch, even at the cost of the team at times.

After an almighty tussle the season came down to the last Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 7. McLaren had already secured the team championship while Mercedes and Red Bull were a distant second and third. Norris led the championship with 408 points, 12 points ahead of Verstappen and 16 ahead of his teammate Piastri.

If he finished third, he would win the driver's title irrespective of where his rivals finished. Norris qualified second behind Verstappen and one ahead of Piastri.

The race was a tussle for the Englishman and as he quickly went third in the race. In a topsy-turvy race, it all boiled down to Norris keeping his cool and doing the job at hand.

After the utter domination of Hamilton from 2014 and Verstappen from 2021, the world of Formula One had a new world champion as Norris finished third.

In the end, Norris accumulated 423 points, two ahead of Verstappen and 13 ahead of Piastri. Will this see a new dominant era for Norris and McLaren or will Verstappen and Red Bull come back hard? One can only wait and watch.

Ever since Brendon McCullum took over as head coach of the English men's Test cricket team, there was a buzz for what was instore. 'Baz' McCullum was a hyper-attacking captain of the New Zealand cricket team and led them to the 2015 World Cup final.

With captain Ben Stokes in tow, England fans were super hyped for the future of their Test team. The team had won only one of their last 17 Test matches played before McCullum's appointment.

Almost as soon as he was announced as the head coach, the term 'Bazball' was coined. It meant that the cricket team would look to be positive at any given occasion and look to be ultra-attacking, especially while batting.

Their fortunes almost immediately swung 180 degrees. England either won or drew each of their next seven series. The last of those was the 2023 Ashes, which was drawn 2-2. It was quite thrilling as England had lost the first two Tests of that series against Australia.

They played incredibly well to win two of the remaining three Tests. But England should ideally have won the series if not for rain affecting the result in the fourth Test, which ended in a draw.

England then won an extraordinary first Test versus India away. Till that point everything seemed great. Their mentality had certainly shifted but not many casual fans would realise that most of their wins came on relatively batting-friendly wickets.

India then roared back to win the next four Tests to hand Bazball its first series loss. But nobody lost sight of their goal - The Ashes in 2025-26 in Australia.

All this time, McCullum and Stokes picked teams keeping an eye on the Ashes Down Under. They picked tall fast bowlers thinking Australia would serve up flat wickets.

But the Aussie pitches had significantly changed over the last two years and when England rocked up, most of the decks were bowler-friendly ones. Despite this, England started the first Test in Perth quite well.

They set Australia a 205-run target on a pitch where the highest team total was 172 till then. Most pundits thought England would win from this point. But then came a 'Headache', which Indian fans know all too well.

Travis Head played arguably the greatest Ashes innings by any Australian in recent memory as he thwacked a barely-believable 83-ball 123. The innings included 16 fours and four sixes. Australia comfortably won the match by eight wickets.

In one innings, Head changed the momentum of the entire series. Australia outplayed England in the second Test to win by eight wickets again and sealed the Ashes by winning the third Test by 82 runs.

The most-hyped Ashes was over before it even moved to the two most iconic grounds in Australia - MCG and SCG. The Ashes was lost in just 11 days of cricket.

Mind you, the series isn't over and it will go over to the new year. But the series is over and not many see England winning either of the two remaining Tests. This has certainly turned into a damp squib.

Just like tennis has Grand Slams, Golf too has its own version. In the modern era, this would include The Open Championship, US Open, PGA Championship and Masters Tournament. Winning all four in the same year is actually winning the Grand Slam.

While this feat has never been achieved in the professional era, Tiger Woods did hold all four titles from 2000 to 2001, which was termed the Tiger Slam. Since the main feat is very difficult to achieve, winning just one title in a calendar year is seen big enough.

Now over the course of a golfer's career, if one manages to win all four at some point it is termed as a Career Grand Slam. Only six golfers have achieved this extraordinary feat in the men's game - Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Woods, and Rory McIlroy.

Nicklaus and Woods are the only two to have won at least three titles of each of the four Grand Slam tournaments. The year 2025 belonged to McIlroy as he became the latest player to get added to this illustrious list.

The Northern Irishman won his first major in 2011 (US Open) and won the next two (PGA Championship in 2012 and The Open in 2014) soon enough.

But he had to wait till 2025 to complete his Career Grand Slam. McIlroy won the Masters Tournament in April. This was much anticipated as he is one of the greatest and most popular golfers in modern times.

McIlroy, 36, has won five majors in his career so far and one can only expect him to win more in his career and get lauded like Nicklaus and Woods.