WASHINGTON, December 10, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)
Looking back at the 2025 tennis season, it was one that was full of positives for 20-year-old Belgian rising star Gilles Arnaud Bailly.
As a former Roland-Garros junior boys’ champion and junior boy’s US Open finalist in 2022, as well as a European Junior Championships winner (boys’ 18-and-under 2022) and a collegiate star in the United States at the University of Texas in 2024, Bailly took a considerable step up on the ITF World Tennis Tour this year.
Bailly is the latest edition to the ITF ‘Class of 2025,’ joining Canada’s Victoria Mboko. This week, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is celebrating the achievements of five players who have enjoyed outstanding results on the ITF World Tennis Tour during the 2025 season. The others will be announced later this week.
The 207th-ranked Bailey’s outstanding 2025 season saw him capture five ITF World Tennis Tour titles, win 60 matches at ITF level and his ATP ranking rose 600 spots – reaching a career high of No. 201 at the beginning of November.
“It really helped me to play a lot of ITF tournaments this year,” Bailly said in a statement. “At the beginning of the year I played some M15s and I got good results there.”
Gilles-Arnaud Bailly (2005) de retour à fond en 2025
Après avoir remporté 2 titres en 2023, suivis d’une année 2024 un peu plus compliquée, G-A va s’engager pleinement dans le Tennis Pro en 2025. Il a bien terminé sa saison en se qualifiant pour le tableau principal à… pic.twitter.com/d1pmIVqZmf
— Le Tennis Belge (@LeTennisBelge) January 2, 2025
Indeed, Bailly began the season by reaching consecutive finals at M15 Monastir in Tunisia, winning the second event at the start of February for his first title since 2023. In that tournament, Bailly dropped just one set throughout the entire week.
Bailly continued his strong run of form in the first half of 2025 by garnering another title at M15 Oegstgeest in the western Netherlands in May, a week after he finished runner-up at the M15 Antalya final in Turkey.
“When the clay season started, I played two more M25s and it gave me a lot of confidence winning so many matches,” Bailly said. “I could grab a lot of points and climb up the rankings.”
19-year-old Gilles-Arnaud Bailly reaches the first #ATPChallenger final of his career following a three-set win over Alejandro Moro-Canas (6-4, 1-6, 6-3) here at the CT Porto Cup.
Next for him: either local favorite Frederico Silva or second seed Guy Den Ouden. pic.twitter.com/O2iSCLb7MM
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) August 30, 2025
As it happened, Bailly’s clay season turned out a positive catalyst for the 5-foot-11-inch native of Hasselt, Belgium. He won his first M25 title of the season in July at Uriage in the French Alps, dropping just one set. Then, Bailly reached another final at M25 Koksijde in Belgium before enjoying an outstanding week at the Porto 75 Challenger in Portugal, where he reached the title match.
In September, Bailly won his fourth title of the season at M25 Meerbusch in Germany. Then, he qualified for the main draw on his home soil at the ATP Brussels 250 event. There, he recorded his first ATP Tour main-draw match against Daniel Altmaier of Germany.
First ATP Tour W for Gilles-Arnaud Bailly
The 20-year-old qualifier takes down Altmaier 6-4 6-7 6-3 for the biggest win of his career so far #BNPPFEuropeanOpen pic.twitter.com/fNKitdYyEp
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 14, 2025
Finally, Bailly won his fifth title of the year at the M25 Sintra in Portugal in October, then reached the final of the same event the following week.
Prior to 2025, Bailly had won just two ITF World Tennis Tour titles, both in 2023. Bailly’s five titles this season tied him for fourth place on the ITF World Tennis Tour for most men’s singles titles won.
Looking back on his season of success on the ITF World Tennis tour, in which he reached nine finals and finished with a win-loss record of 60-19, Bailly said: “Playing all these matches helped a lot because you play against all these different players with different game styles, so you learn a lot from that and it helped me a lot.”
Great victories are never forgotten… specially when they happen at home
A moment Gilles-Arnaud Bailly will never forget. ✨#bnppfeuropeanopen pic.twitter.com/AgB6SjOQYy
— BNP Paribas Fortis European Open (@BNPPFEUOpen) November 3, 2025
Although Bailly is yet to feature at any of the Grand Slam events, either in qualifying or the main draw, don’t be surprised if the young Belgian achieves new levels of success on the pro circuit in the year ahead. Bailly made the third-largest ranking improvement among young players that began the 2025 season ranked inside the ATP Top 1000, behind Rafael Jodar of Spain and Petr Brunclik of Czechia.
“He is a great mover on court – he moves really well, he reads the game well. He’s a real competitor,” Bailly’s coach Dries Beerden said in a statement.
“This year he made a good evolution from being a junior player to a pro, he got bigger arms so his forehand and serve improved a lot,” Beerden added. “That means he had a few more free points during his matches which is very important in modern men’s tennis.”
