Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka ( be, Арына Сяргееўна Сабаленка; russian: Арина Сергеевна Соболенко, ''Arina Sergeyevna Sobolenko'', born 5 May 1998) is a Belarusian professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles by the

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenn ...

(WTA). Sabalenka has won two Grand Slam doubles titles, the 2019 US Open and the

2021 Australian Open The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It w ...

, alongside

Elise Mertens Elise Mertens (; born 17 November 1995) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles. Mertens is a three-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering ...

. She has won 16 career titles in total, ten in singles and six in doubles. Sabalenka was relatively unknown until 2017 when she rose to prominence by leading the Belarus Fed Cup team to a runner-up finish with

Aliaksandra Sasnovich Aliaksandra Aliaksandraŭna Sasnovich ( be, Аляксандра Аляксандраўна Сасновіч; born 22 March 1994) is a Belarusian tennis player. She has won eleven singles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. She has rea ...

, despite both of them being ranked outside the top 75 at the time. Following the

2017 Fed Cup The 2017 Fed Cup was the 55th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. The final took place on 11–12 November and was won by the United States . World Group Seeds Draw Final Belarus ...

, she began having more success on the WTA Tour, reaching four finals in 2018 and achieving eight top ten victories. Sabalenka continued to excel in singles in 2019 with three titles in China, highlighted by a defense of her

Wuhan Open The Wuhan Open (currently sponsored by Dongfeng Motor) is a tennis tournament held in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and organized for female professional tennis players. It is one of the WTA 1000 tournaments on the WTA Tour and made its debut in t ...

title at the Premier 5 level and by winning the WTA Elite Trophy at the end of the year. She finished both 2018 and 2019 ranked No. 11 in the world in singles. Sabalenka also began playing doubles regularly in 2019. With Mertens as her partner, she completed the Sunshine Double by winning the two Premier Mandatory tournaments in March, the

Indian Wells Open The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is La ...

and the Miami Open. After the US Open doubles title later in the year, she also qualified for the

WTA Finals The WTA Finals (formerly known as the WTA Tour Championships or WTA Championships) is a tournament of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) played annually at the end of the season. The event is uniquely reserved for players at the top of the WTA ...

for the first time. Sabalenka's best results in singles at the Grand Slam tournaments came at the

2021 Wimbledon Championships The 2021 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentlemen's singles title to cl ...

and 2021 US Open, where she reached the semifinals. Sabalenka has a very aggressive style of play, often accumulating high numbers of winners and unforced errors. With her height, she also has a very strong serve when it is in form.

Early life and background

Sabalenka was born on 5 May 1998 in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

, the capital of

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. Her father Sergey (d. 2019) was a hockey player. Aryna started playing tennis by chance. She said, "One day, my dad was just driving me somewhere in the car, and on the way he saw tennis courts. So he took me to the courts. I really liked it and enjoyed it and that's how it was. That's how it started." She began training at the National Tennis Academy in Minsk when it opened in 2014. In 2015, the Belarusian Tennis Federation persuaded Sabalenka and her team to focus on playing low-level professional events instead of junior tournaments, even though she was still eligible to compete at the junior level at the time.

Junior career

Sabalenka had a late start on the

ITF Junior Circuit The ITF Junior Circuit is the premier level for worldwide competition among under-18 junior tennis players. Founded in 1977 with only nine tournaments, the 2011 ITF Junior Circuit offered over 350 tournaments in 118 countries. Mirroring the ATP an ...

, instead competing on the U14 and U16 Tennis Europe tours at a younger age. She did not compete in the main draw of any ITF events until 2013 at the low-level Grade 4 Tallink Cup in Estonia at the age of 15. She ultimately never played in the junior Grand Slam tournaments, or any other high-level Grade A and Grade 1 events. Without the higher point levels from these bigger tournaments, she had a career-high ranking of just 225. Sabalenka won her first ITF title in doubles at the lowest-level Grade-5 Alatan Tour Cup in Belarus in late 2013 with compatriot

Vera Lapko Vera Valeryevna Lapko ( be, Вера Валер'еўна Лапко; born 29 September 1998) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has won six singles titles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 1 October 2018, she reached ...

as her partner. In 2014, she excelled at Grade 4 events. She reached her first singles final at the Estonian Junior Open in June and won her first singles title at the MTV Total Junior Cup in Finland in October. At the end of the season, Sabalenka defended her Alatan Tour Cup doubles title, this time with compatriot Nika Shytkouskaya, and also won the singles title. She only played in one tournament in 2015, the European Junior Championships. As a Grade B1 event, this was the highest level junior tournament she played in. She lost in the second round to top seed

Markéta Vondroušová Markéta Šimková (née Vondroušová; ; born 28 June 1999) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 14 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Vondroušová finished runner-up at the 2019 French Open, ...

Professional career

2012–16: Top 200, Fed Cup debut

Sabalenka began playing on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

in 2012, even before she competed on the

. Her first five tournaments were in her hometown of Minsk and spread out over two years, but she did not win a main draw match in any of them. She won her first professional match at the very end of 2014 in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

. The following season in October, she won her first two titles in back-to-back weeks in

Antalya la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 07xxx , area_code = (+90) 242 , registration_plate = 07 , blank_name = Licence plate ...

, both at the $10K level. Sabalenka also won a $25K title the last week of the year. This title put her into the top 300 of the WTA rankings for the first time at the start of 2016. That year, she made her Fed Cup debut in April, losing her only match. She also won her two biggest titles to date at the $50K level. The first in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

put her into the top 200 in May and the second in

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

in November helped her finish the year ranked at No. 137 in the world.

2017: Fed Cup heroics, WTA 125 title, top 100

Despite some early season success in Fed Cup, Sabalenka had a quiet start to the year otherwise. She played in her first WTA Tour main draw in February as a qualifier at the Dubai Open; however, she did not win her first WTA match until Wimbledon in July. In her Grand Slam debut, she again reached the main draw through qualifying and defeated

Irina Khromacheva Irina Pavlovna Khromacheva ( rus, Ирина Павловна Хромачёва; born 12 May 1995) is a professional tennis player from Russia. She has career-high WTA rankings of 89 in singles and 41 in doubles. Khromacheva was provisionally ...

in the opening round. Sabalenka followed up this achievement with another WTA win over No. 34,

Lauren Davis Lauren Davis (born October 9, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. Known for her aggressive backhand, speed, and clay-court strength, she won her first title on the WTA Tour at the Auckland Open and reached a career-high singles ra ...

, at the Washington Open, the 2016 runner-up and the highest-ranked player she had defeated at the time. After losing in qualifying at the US Open, Sabalenka reached her first ever WTA semifinal at the

Tashkent Open The Tashkent Open by Zeromax is a women's tennis tournament held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Held since 1999, this WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tou ...

, defeating third seed and world No. 53,

Tatjana Maria Tatjana Maria (née Malek; born 8 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player. In November 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 46, and in June 2016, she peaked at No. 54 in the doubles rankings. She has won two singles ...

, along the way. A few weeks later, she entered the

Tianjin Open The Tianjin Open is an International-level WTA tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket th ...

as the 119th-ranked player in the world, but managed to reach her first WTA final. There, she faced her childhood idol

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ( , ; rus, Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова, p=mɐˈrʲijə ʂɐˈrapəvə, a=Maria_sharapova.ogg; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis player. She competed on the WTA Tour from 2 ...

, but ultimately lost in two tight sets. With this performance, she rose to No. 76 in the rankings, entering the top 100 for the first time. After losing a tight Fed Cup final to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, Sabalenka finished the season by winning the biggest title of her career at the time at the

Mumbai Open This was a former WTA 125K tennis tournament. The tournament was not held between 2013–16 due to various reasons, but in 2017 it was reinstated as a WTA 125K series tournament and relocated to Mumbai. The Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Assoc ...

, a

WTA 125 WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger series She reached two quarterfinals to begin the year, but lost her opening-round match at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Ope ...

to top-ranked Australian and world No. 18

Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh is the feminine form of the Old English name Ashley, which means "dweller near the ash tree forest". It is most common in the United States and United Kingdom. Notable people B *Ashleigh Ball (born 1983), Canadian voice actress * Ashle ...

. She then won her first matches at a

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

tournament with a third-round appearance at the

before the early-year hard court season came to a close, including a victory over No. 19, Svetlana Kuznetsova. Sabalenka began the clay-court season by reaching a second career final at the

Ladies Open Lugano The inaugural edition of the Ladies Open Lugano, formerly the Ladies Open Biel/Bienne, an International-level WTA tennis event, was held in April 2017 at the Swiss National Tennis Centre in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The new indoor arena was compl ...

, where she finished runner-up to No. 20,

. This success also put her in the top 50 for the first time. However, she did not win another match for the rest of the clay court season, including a first round defeat to No. 22,

Kiki Bertens Kiki Bertens (; born 10 December 1991) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA singles ranking was world No. 4, which she reached on 13 May 2019, becoming the highest ranked Dutch female player ever. Her career-high do ...

, at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

. Sabalenka had stronger results on grass, playing in tune-ups during each of the three weeks before Wimbledon. She made it to the quarterfinals at the

Rosmalen Grass Court Championships The Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, branded by its sponsored name as the Libéma Open since 2018, (formerly known as the Continental Grass Court Championships, Heineken Trophy, Ordina Open, UNICEF Open, Topshelf Open and RICOH Open), is a pro ...

and the final at the Premier-level

Eastbourne International The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour 2 ...

. At the latter event, she won five consecutive three-set matches, including three over top 20 opponents and her first top ten victory against defending champion and world No. 7, Karolína Plíšková. Sabalenka lost the final to world No. 2,

Caroline Wozniacki Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is a Danish former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a total of 71 weeks, including at the end of 2010 and 2011. She achieved the top ranking for the first time on 11 ...

. For the third consecutive Grand Slam event, she went out in the first round at Wimbledon. During the North American hardcourt summer season, Sabalenka continued to rise through the rankings. At the two Premier 5 tournaments, she reached the third round at the Canadian Open and the semifinals at the

Cincinnati Open The Cincinnati Masters or Cincinnati Open (branded as the Western & Southern Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati. The event started on September 18, 1899, and is the o ...

. In the former, she avenged her previous loss to world No. 2, Wozniacki, for the biggest win of her career, hitting 64 winners during the match. In the latter, she recorded two more top ten wins over No. 8 Plíšková and No. 5

Caroline Garcia Caroline Garcia (, born 16 October 1993) is a French professional tennis player. She has been ranked in the top 5 in both singles at world No. 4 and in doubles at world No. 2. Garcia is the 2022 WTA Finals singles champion. She is also a two- ...

before losing to world No. 1, Simona Halep. Just a week later, Sabalenka won her first WTA title at the Premier-level Connecticut Open with wins over world No. 9,

Julia Görges Julia Görges (born 2 November 1988) is a German former professional tennis player. A former top-ten singles player, she was ranked as high as No. 9 in the world on 20 August 2018, and was ranked inside the top 15 in doubles, peaking at world No ...

, in the semifinal, and

Carla Suárez Navarro Carla Suárez Navarro (; born 3 September 1988, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A former top 10 singles player, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 on 29 February 2016, and a b ...

in the final. Playing a fourth consecutive week, she closed out this part of the season with her best result at a Grand Slam tournament to date, making it to the fourth round at the US Open. In particular, she upset world No. 5,

Petra Kvitová Petra Kvitová, OLY ( , ; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 29 career singles titles, including two major titles at Wimbledon in 2011 and ...

, in the third round before losing to the eventual champion,

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champ ...

. She was the only player to win a set against Osaka in the tournament. After the US Open, Sabalenka earned her first No. 1 seed at the

Tournoi de Québec The Tournoi de Québec (sponsored as Coupe Banque Nationale or known as National Bank Cup in English-language media) was a WTA Tour International level tennis tournament held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Held from 1993 to 2018, the tournament w ...

, but lost her opening match. Nonetheless, she followed this up by winning the Premier 5 level

, the biggest title of her career. During the event, she upset No. 6 Elina Svitolina in the second round and did not drop a set in any of her last four matches. The following week, Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals of the China Open, a run that included a win over defending champion and No. 4, Caroline Garcia, for her eighth top-ten victory of the season. This success in China helped her climb to No. 11 in the world. At the end of the season, Sabalenka qualified for the WTA Elite Trophy, where she was grouped with Garcia and Ashleigh Barty. She defeated Barty to open the group, but lost to Garcia in the group's final match. Barty, having defeated Garcia with fewer games lost, advanced out of the group through the tiebreak criteria to end Sabalenka's season. Nonetheless, she was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year for her excellent performance in her first full year on the WTA Tour.

2019: Top 10 debut in singles, world No. 2 in doubles

Singles: Elite Trophy, three titles in China in total

Although Sabalenka once again struggled at the Grand Slam tournaments, she ultimately finished the year with the same year-end ranking as in 2018 on the strength of three titles, all in China. She began the season by winning her third career WTA title at the Shenzhen Open, defeating

Alison Riske Alison Riske-Amritraj (née Riske; born July 3, 1990) is an American professional tennis player. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in November 2019 and won her first WTA Tour title in October 2014 at the Tianjin Open. ...

in the final in a tight three-set match. Due to rain delays in the earlier rounds, she needed to play both the semifinal and the final on the last day of the tournament. However, she could not build on this success in the rest of the first half of the year. Sabalenka lost to 17-year-old

Amanda Anisimova Amanda Anisimova ( ; , ; born August 31, 2001) is a Russian-American professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA ranking of No. 21 in the world, and has been ranked in the top 100 since shortly after turning 17 years old. Anisimova has ...

in straight sets at both the

and the

in the third and second rounds, respectively. She had been considered the third-leading favourite for the title at the Australian Open. Nonetheless, she made her top-10 debut following the event. Sabalenka fared worse at Wimbledon, losing her opening match to No. 139

Magdaléna Rybáriková Magdaléna Rybáriková (; born 4 October 1988) is a retired Slovak tennis player. In her career, she won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. Rybáriková reached the semifinals of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and br ...

. In-between the Grand Slam tournaments, Sabalenka's best result was a semifinal loss to No. 8,

, at the Premier-level St. Petersburg Trophy in February. She also made the fourth round at the

. Her best result on clay was a semifinal at the

Internationaux de Strasbourg The Internationaux de Strasbourg (formally known as the Strasbourg Grand Prix) is a professional women's tennis tournament held in Strasbourg, France. It is an International-level outdoor event of the WTA Tour played on clay courts. The tournamen ...

in May. Sabalenka had a better second half of the season. In her first tournament following Wimbledon, she finished runner-up to

Zheng Saisai Zheng Saisai or Zheng Sai-Sai (; born February 5, 1994) is a Chinese tennis player. She won one WTA singles title (at the Premier level 2019 Silicon Valley Classic), five WTA doubles titles, and reached the final of the 2019 French Open in dou ...

at the

Silicon Valley Classic The Silicon Valley Classic, sponsored by Mubadala Investment Company, is a week-long tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California, United States. Started in 1971, the tournament is the ol ...

, a Premier-level event. She did not perform well at either Premier 5 tournament in August or the US Open, losing in the second round at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Sabalenka returned to China following the US Open, and produced three strong results in four events. After a quarterfinal at the

Zhengzhou Open The Zhengzhou Open is a tournament for professional female tennis players played on outdoor hardcourts. The event has been held in Zhengzhou, China, since 2014 as an ITF tournament and then as WTA 125 tournaments, WTA 125 tournament in 2017 and 20 ...

, she defended her title at the Premier 5

. During the event, she defeated No. 8 Kiki Bertens in the third round and No. 1 Ashleigh Barty in the semifinals, her first victory over a current world No. 1 player. She won the final over

. At the end of the season, Sabalenka qualified for the WTA Elite Trophy for the second consecutive year. She swept her round-robin group of

Maria Sakkari Maria Sakkari ( gr, Μαρία Σάκκαρη, ; born 25 July 1995) is a Greek professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 3 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she first achieved on 21 March 2022, making her ...

and her doubles partner Elise Mertens. In the knockout rounds, Sabalenka defeated Karolína Muchová and Bertens for her fifth career title, and her third title of the year in China.

Doubles: US Open champion, Sunshine Double

Sabalenka started the year ranked No. 73 in doubles. She began partnering with Elise Mertens in January, when the pair lost to top seeds

Barbora Krejčíková Barbora Krejčíková (; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2, achieved on 28 February 2022, and on 22 October 2018, she became world No. 1 in doubles. Krejčíková ...

and

Kateřina Siniaková Kateřina Siniaková (; ; born 10 May 1996) is a Czech professional tennis player who is the current world No. 1 in doubles. She is a six-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2018 and 2021 French Opens, 2018 and 2022 Wimbledon ...

in the third round of the

. They had their breakthrough in March at the two Premier Mandatory tournaments. In only their second tournament together, Sabalenka and Mertens won the

. They defeated three of the top five seeds in the event, including second seeds

Tímea Babos Tímea Babos (; born 10 May 1993) is a Hungarian professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a four-time Grand Slam champion in women's doubles, having won the 2018 and 2020 Australian Opens, as well as the Fre ...

and

Kristina Mladenovic Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic (; sr, Кристина "Кики" Младеновић, Kristina "Kiki" Mladenović, ; born 14 May 1993) is a French professional tennis player and a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a nine-time Grand Slam c ...

in the first round and top seeds Krejčíková and Siniaková in the final. The pair matched this success at their next event by winning the Miami Open to complete the Sunshine Double. They defeated three of the top six seeds, including third seeds

Hsieh Su-wei Hsieh Su-wei ( ;''Xiè 謝淑薇Shūwēi'' in Chinese mainland. Taiwanese Mandarin: ; in Standard Mandarin of Chinese mainland. born 4 January 1986) is an inactive Taiwanese professional tennis player. She has won three singles titles and 30 ...

and

Barbora Strýcová Barbora Strýcová (; born 28 March 1986), formerly known as Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, is a Czech former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. She won her first Grand Slam title at the 2019 Wimbledon Champion ...

in the second round. They won the final against sixth seeds

Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur ( ; born 30 March 1984) is an Australian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten s ...

and

Zhang Shuai Zhang Shuai (; ; born 21 January 1989) is a Chinese professional tennis player. She is a two-time Grand Slam champion in women's doubles, having won the 2019 Australian Open and the 2021 US Open, both alongside Samantha Stosur. Zhang als ...

. With these two titles, Sabalenka rose to No. 21 in the world. Sabalenka and Mertens continued to partner together throughout the year, entering eleven events before the year-end championships. Whereas Sabalenka did not have much success in the Grand Slam singles events, she produced much better results in doubles. Sabalenka and Mertens reached the semifinals at the

, losing to second seeds Babos and Mladenovic. They then reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing to third seeds Hsieh and Strýcová. These were Sabalenka's first two appearances in at least the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam event. Sabalenka and Mertens had their best result of the year at the US Open. As the fourth seeds at the event, they made it to the final without having to play another top ten seeded team. In the final, they faced eighth seeds

Victoria Azarenka Victória Fyódarauna Azárenka ( be, Вікторыя Фёдараўна Азаранка; Russian: Виктория Фёдоровна Азаренко; born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Azarenka is a former w ...

and Ashleigh Barty, the latter of whom had won the title a year earlier with

CoCo Vandeweghe Colleen "CoCo" Vandeweghe ( ) (born Colleen Mullarkey; December 6, 1991) is an American professional tennis player. A former Junior US Open champion and top 10 singles player, she has also won two WTA titles, both at the Rosmalen Grass Court C ...

. Sabalenka and Mertens defeated Azarenka and Barty in straight sets for their first career Grand Slam title in any discipline. With this title, Sabalenka made her top 10 debut in doubles at No. 6 in the world. Sabalenka and Mertens made one more final during the year, finishing runner-up at the

where Sabalenka won the singles title. Their three big titles helped them win the Race to Shenzhen and qualify for the

as the top seeds. Before the event, Sabalenka and Mertens moved up to No. 2 and No. 3 in the rankings, respectively, behind only world No. 1, Barbora Strýcová. At the WTA Finals, the pair were placed in a round robin group with third seeds Babos and Mladenovic, fifth seeds Chan Hao-ching and

Latisha Chan Latisha Chan (born 17 August 1989), formerly known by her Chinese name Chan Yung-jan (; ), is a Taiwanese tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. She has won 33 career titles in doubles, including a Grand Slam title at the 2017 ...

, as well as eighth seeds

Anna-Lena Grönefeld Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; born 4 June 1985) is a German former professional tennis player. Competing as a professional from 2003 until 2019, she won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2006 Mexican Open, and reached ...

and

Demi Schuurs Demi Schuurs (born 1 August 1993) is a professional Dutch tennis player who has specialized in doubles. She has won 15 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one singles title and 20 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. In February 2015, she ...

. In their opening match, they were upset by Grönefeld and Schuurs in a match tiebreak. After defeating the Chan sisters, Sabalenka and Mertens lost to Babos and Mladenovic in another match tiebreak and did not advance out of their group.

2020: Three WTA titles, year-end top 10

Sabalenka continued on from her late season surge by reaching the semifinals in Adelaide. She came from a 3–5 final set deficit against Hsieh Su-wei before sliding past Bernarda Pera and shocking second seed Simona Halep, whom she had never won a set against before, in straight sets. She then lost in straight sets to eventual runner-up

Dayana Yastremska Dayana Oleksandrivna Yastremska ( uk, Даяна Олександрівна Ястремська; born 15 May 2000) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 21 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). ...

. Despite her good start to the season, she was upset by Carla Suárez Navarro in two tie-breakers in the first round of the Australian Open. In doubles she enjoyed moderate success with Mertens reaching the quarterfinals, before losing to the Chan sisters. Her next tournament was the

Dubai Tennis Championships The Dubai Tennis Championships or Dubai Open (also known as the ''Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships'' for sponsorship reasons) (formerly known for sponsorship reasons as the ''Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships'' and the ''Dubai Duty Free Men's ...

where she made the quarterfinals with wins over Maria Sakkari and doubles partner Mertens. There she faced Simona Halep. Despite taking the first set she was unable to repeat her earlier upset falling to the eventual champion in three sets. She rebounded at the Qatar Open, reaching the final with wins over

Anett Kontaveit Anett Kontaveit (; born 24 December 1995) is an Estonian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she first achieved on 6 June 2022, making her the highest-ranked Eston ...

, Maria Sakkari, Zheng Saisai and Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the final, she defeated Petra Kvitová in straight sets to claim her third Premier-5 title. After tennis resumed in August due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

, she was the second seed in

Lexington Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...

where she survived

Madison Brengle Madison Brengle (born April 3, 1990) is an American professional tennis player. Her biggest success she had in early 2015, reaching her first WTA Tour final in January, followed by a fourth round major event appearance at the Australian Open. I ...

in three sets but then fell in a three set thriller to 16 year old

Coco Gauff Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff (born March 13, 2004) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in singles, reached on October 24, 2022, and world No. 1 in doubles, achieved on August 15, 2022. Gauff won h ...

. Her results continued to disappoint as, seeded fifth, she crashed out in the second round of both Cincinnati and New York to Jessica Pegula and a resurgent Victoria Azarenka. She had moderate success in doubles reaching the quarterfinals of both events. Her results in singles began to improve on clay as she reached the semifinals in Strasbourg and the third round of the

losing to Elina Svitolina and

Ons Jabeur Ons Jabeur ( ar, أُنْس جَابِر, ʾUns Jābir, ; born 28 August 1994) is a Tunisian professional tennis player. She has a career high Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranking of world No. 2 achieved on 27 June 2022. Jabeur is the curre ...

, respectively. That was Sabalenka's last loss of the season. In Ostrava, she came from 5–2 in the decider down to avenge her Lexington loss to Gauff and lost the first ten games of her quarterfinal match against

Sara Sorribes Tormo Sara Sorribes Tormo (; born 8 October 1996) is a Spanish professional tennis player. Sorribes Tormo has won one singles title and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. On the ITF Circuit, ...

before winning the next twelve to win. In the final, she avenged her US Open loss to Azarenka, defeating her compatriot in straight sets. She then also took the Linz title by defeating Elise Mertens in the final. This gave Sabalenka the first year-end top-10 finish in her career.

2021: World No. 1 in doubles, Two Major semifinals, world No. 2 in singles

Sabalenka entered 2021 on a nine-match winning streak, and participated in her first tournament of the year at the Abu Dhabi Open as the fourth seed. She defeated

Polona Hercog Polona Hercog (, born 20 January 1991) is a Slovenian professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA rankings are 35 in singles and 56 in doubles. She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, three in singles and two in doubles. Hercog also enjoye ...

in straight sets, coming back from a 5–2 deficit in the first set, and then defeated

Ajla Tomljanović Ajla Tomljanović ( ; ; born 7 May 1993) is an Australian professional tennis player. She has won four singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 October 2022, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33. On 5 Janu ...

and Ons Jabeur to reach the quarterfinals, similarly in straight sets. She defeated Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, where she dropped her first set of the week, before defeating Maria Sakkari, in straight sets. In the final, Sabalenka defeated first-time finalist Veronika Kudermetova, in straight sets, losing just four games in total. The run to the title at Abu Dhabi extended her winning streak to 15 matches, and catapulted her to a new ranking of No. 7. Sabalenka went into the Australian Open looking to make a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal for the first time in her career. She was defeated in the fourth round by 23-time Grand Slam champion

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) fo ...

in three sets. Sabalenka won the doubles competition with Elise Mertens. By virtue of winning the title, Sabalenka ascended to world No. 1 in the doubles rankings for the first time in her career, on 22 February 2021. As defending champion at the Qatar Open in Doha, and after receiving a first-round bye, Sabalenka was defeated in her first match by eventual finalist

Garbiñe Muguruza Garbiñe Muguruza Blanco (; born 8 October 1993) is a Spanish-Venezuelan professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles WTA rankings#Singles, ranking of List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Singles, world No. 1 by the ...

, in three sets. At the

, in her first tournament since becoming No. 1 in doubles, Sabalenka and Mertens received a bye in the first round and lost their opening match to Jessica Pegula and

Bethanie Mattek-Sands Bethanie Mattek-Sands ( Bethanie Lynn Mattek; born March 23, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. She has won nine Grand Slam titles (five in women's doubles and four in mixed doubles), and an Olympic gold medal, and is a former ...

. Sabalenka cruised through to the quarterfinals in the singles event, defeating 15th seed

along the way, before losing to Muguruza for the second time in as many weeks, again in three sets. Sabalenka won the title at the Madrid Open where she faced Ashleigh Barty in the championship match. It was a rematch of the 2021 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final, two week earlier, as Sabalenka faced her vanquisher, world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty. As a result of her fourth WTA 1000 title, she entered the top 5 rankings in singles at world No. 4. Sabalenka and compatriot Victoria Azarenka won the doubles event at the

German Open German Open is a name given to many sports events established in Germany, and include: *German Open (badminton), an annual badminton tournament held since 1955. * German Open (golf), was a golf tournament on the European Tour *German Masters, a snoo ...

, defeating the top seeded pair of Demi Schuurs and

Nicole Melichar Nicole Melichar-Martinez (née Melichar; cz, Nicole Melicharová, ) is an American tennis player who specializes in doubles. She has won twelve doubles titles on the WTA Tour and one WTA 125 doubles title as well as two singles and seven double ...

. Seeded second at Wimbledon, Sabalenka reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal and semifinal, defeating 18th seed Elena Rybakina and 21st seed Ons Jabeur in straight sets, respectively. She then lost her semifinal match against Karolina Pliskova in three sets. As a result of her performance at Wimbledon she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in the WTA singles rankings. Sabalenka became the third Belarusian woman to reach the last four of Wimbledon following

Natasha Zvereva Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava ( be, Наталля Маратаўна Зверава; russian: Наталья Маратовна Зверева, Natalia Maratovna Zvereva; born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belarus ...

in 1998 and

in 2011 and 2012. Sabalenka continued her season at the Canadian Open in Montreal. She reached the semifinals but lost to Karolína Plíšková, in straight sets. She then lost her opening-round match against Paula Badosa at the

. Despite the loss, Sabalenka reached a career-high ranking of world No. 2. At the US Open, Sabalenka reached her second consecutive (and second overall) major semifinal following wins over Danielle Collins, Elise Mertens, and Barbora Krejčíková. In the semifinal, she lost to

Leylah Fernandez Leylah Annie Fernandez (born 6 September 2002) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), achieved on 8 August 2022. Fernandez won her first WTA Tour title at the 20 ...

in three sets. Due to a positive Covid-19 test, Sabalenka was not able to play at Indian Wells.

2022: WTA Finals runner-up, second US Open semifinal

Sabalenka began her 2022 season at the

2022 Adelaide International 1 The 2022 Adelaide International 1 was a tennis tournament on the 2022 ATP Tour and 2022 WTA Tour. It was a combined ATP Tour 250 and WTA 500 tournament played on outdoor hard courts at the redeveloped Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in Adelaide, S ...

as the second seed. After a first-round bye Sabalenka lost in the second round in straight sets to

Kaja Juvan Kaja Juvan (born 25 November 2000) is a Slovenian tennis player who turned professional on 17 October 2016. Juvan has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 58, achieved on 6 June 2022, and peaked at No. 99 in the doubles rankings on 11 July ...

. Sabalenka served 18 double faults to five aces. Next, Sabalenaka received a wildcard to enter the

2022 Adelaide International 2 The 2022 Adelaide International 2 was a tennis tournament on the 2022 ATP Tour and 2022 WTA Tour. It was a combined ATP Tour 250 and WTA 250 tournament played on outdoor hard courts at the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in Adelaide, South Austr ...

and was seeded first, but lost her first round to a qualifier, world No. 93

Rebecca Peterson Rebecca Peterson (born 6 August 1995) is a Swedish tennis player. She has been ranked as high as 43 in singles and 87 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Peterson has reached two singles finals on the WTA Tour in 2019, winning bot ...

, in three sets. Once again Sabalenka struggled with her serve, recording 21 double faults for the match. She entered the

as the second seed. Sabalenka's serving struggles continued, but she managed to dig out three-set wins against world No. 128 Storm Sanders, No. 100

Wang Xinyu Wang Xinyu (, ; born 26 September 2001) is a Chinese tennis player. Coaching team Wang's current team consists of her father Wang Peng; a Serbian technical coach, Aleksandar Slović, who won the men's singles title at 2009 Summer Universiade ...

and No. 41

to advance to the fourth round for the second time in her career. She faced off against giant-killer

Kaia Kanepi Kaia Kanepi (; born 10 June 1985) is an Estonian professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 15 on 20 August 2012 and has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour. Described as a 'resident Grand Slam upset speci ...

, who had defeated the 16th seed

Angelique Kerber Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 1, for a total of 34 weeks, and won three major titles at the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open, and the 2018 Wi ...

in the first round. Kanepi prevailed in a tight three-set match, which ended in a third set super-tiebreak. Sabalenka managed to save four match points during the match, but also served 15 double faults to Kanepi's four. She found some form reaching quarterfinals at the Qatar Open beating Alize Cornet and

Jil Teichmann Jil Belén Teichmann (born 15 July 1997) is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as high as world No. 21 in singles and No. 74 in doubles. She has won two singles titles and one doubles ...

, before losing to the eventual champion

Iga Świątek Iga Natalia Świątek (; born 31 May 2001) is a Polish professional tennis player. She is currently ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Świątek is a three-time major singles champion, having won the French Open in 20 ...

in the semifinals. Following early exits in Indian Wells,

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and Charleston, she reached her first final of 2022 at the Women’s Stuttgart Open, defeating

Bianca Andreescu Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (; born June 16, 2000) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 4 in the world, and is the highest-ranked Canadian in the history of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Andreescu ...

, world No. 6

and

Paula Badosa Paula Badosa Gibert () (born 15 November 1997) is a Spanish professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she achieved on 25 April 2022, and No. 124 in doubles, at ...

, the new world No. 2, eventually losing to world No. 1, Świątek, again. Entering as the defending champion at the Madrid Open, Sabalenka was knocked out by

in the first round. At the

Italian Open Italian Open may refer to: *Italian Open (tennis), a Masters 1000 level tennis tournament played in Rome each year. *Italian Open (golf) The DS Automobiles Italian Open ( it, Open d'Italia) is the men's national open golf championship of Italy. I ...

, after defeating

, Amanda Anisimova, and Jessica Pegula, she lost to Świątek in the semifinals for the third time in 2022. At the

, Sabalenka lost in the third round to

Camila Giorgi Camila Giorgi (; born 30 December 1991) is an Italian professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 26, achieved on 22 October 2018. She is the current Italian No. 2, after Martina Trevisan. After winning her f ...

in three sets. Sabalenka began the grass court season at the Libéma Open as the top seed, where she made the final, losing to

Ekaterina Alexandrova Ekaterina Evgenyevna Alexandrova ( rus, Екатери́на Евге́ньевна Александро́ва, links=no; ; born 15 November 1994) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has won three WTA singles titles, three WTA 125 titl ...

. She then entered the

as the third seed, but lost in the first round to Veronika Kudermetova. Due to Wimbledon's ruling on Russian and Belarusian players, Sabalenka was banned from participating in the event due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, cutting her grass season short. She opened the US hard court swing in

, losing to Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals. She then played the Canadian Open, losing to

in the third round. Her best result since Stuttgart came at

, where as the sixth seed, she made the semifinals, defeating

Anna Kalinskaya Anna Nikolayevna Kalinskaya ( rus, Анна Николаевна Калинская, , ˈanːə kɐˈlʲinskəjə, Ru-Anna_Kalinskaya.ogg; born 2 December 1998) is a Russian professional tennis player. Ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...

Shelby Rogers Shelby Rogers (born October 13, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 30 in singles achieved August 2022 and No. 40 in doubles, achieved February 2022, and has won six singles and two doub ...

, and Zhang Shuai before losing to eventual champion Caroline Garcia in three sets. She then made her best run of the season at the US Open. Seeded sixth, she defeated Catherine Harrison,

Clara Burel Clara Burel (; born 24 March 2001) is a French tennis player. On 21 February 2022, she peaked at No. 74 in the WTA singles rankings. In singles, she reached two Grand Slam junior finals and won two silver medals at the Youth Summer Olympics. ...

, 19th seed Danielle Collins,and 22nd seed & former World No. 1 Karolína Plíšková to reach the semifinals, matching her previous best result from 2021. In her second round match against Kanepi, Sabalenka came back from 6–2, 5–1 down to win in three sets, saving two match points in the process. In the semifinals, she was defeated by World No. 1 Iga Świątek for the fourth time this season. At the San Diego Open, Sabalenka defeated

Sloane Stephens Sloane Stephens (born March 20, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-best ranking of world No. 3 after Wimbledon in 2018. Stephens was the 2017 US Open champion, and has won seven WTA Tour singles titles in to ...

in three sets before losing to Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals. In receipt of a first-round bye in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Mexico, while the Guadalaj ...

, she lost to

Liudmila Samsonova Liudmila Dmitriyevna Samsonova ( rus, Людмила Дмитриевна Самсонова, , lʲʊdˈmʲiɫə sɐmˈsonəvə; born 11 November 1998) is a Russian tennis player. She also competed for Italy, from 2014 to 2018. Samsonova has a c ...

in the second round. However, she managed to qualify for the

for a second straight year. There, she reached the decision, lost to

, along the way defeating world No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 2 Ons Jabeur in the round robin stage, and No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. She became the fourth woman to defeat the Top 3 players at the same tournament joining

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...

(1999 Roland Garros), Serena Williams (2002 Miami Open), and

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...

(2008 WTA Finals).

National representation

Fed Cup

Early appearances

Sabalenka represented Belarus at the Junior Fed Cup in 2014, with the team finishing in sixth place. She then made her senior

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was chan ...

debut for

in April 2016, losing a

dead rubber Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...

doubles match against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. Nonetheless, the Belarusian team led by

and

won the tie to qualify for the top-tier World Group the following season for the first time in their history.

2017: Surprise runner-up in World Group debut

The Belarus Fed Cup team made their debut in the World Group and ultimately reached the final, despite being the underdogs in all three ties. Little was expected from the team because they were without their veteran leader Azarenka, who missed the first two ties on maternity leave and the last because of a custody battle. Without her, Belarus was led by Sabalenka and Sasnovich, neither of whom had ever been ranked above No. 76 by the time of the final. However, they did have the advantage of playing all of their ties at home in Minsk. The ties in the quarterfinals against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in February and the semifinals against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in April both played out in the same way. While Sabalenka lost her opening matches to their opponents' respective top-ranked players of

and

Timea Bacsinszky Timea Bacsinszky ( hu, Bacsinszky Tímea; born 8 June 1989) is a Swiss former professional tennis player who won four singles titles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as 13 singles and 14 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. A fo ...

, Sasnovich was able to give Belarus a 2–1 lead in each instance. Sabalenka then clinched both ties, with wins over

Michaëlla Krajicek Michaëlla Krajicek ( cz, Michaela Krajíčková; born 9 January 1989) is a Dutch former tennis player. She won three singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one WTA 125 tournaments, WTA 125 doubles title, and 14 singles and ...

and No. 54 Viktorija Golubic respectively. She was only ranked No. 125 at the time of the semifinal, with no career WTA match wins outside of Fed Cup. On the opening day of the final against the

, Sabalenka upset the reigning US Open champion and world No. 13,

, to level the tie after Sasnovich lost her first rubber to No. 10,

. The next day began with Sabalenka losing to Vandeweghe, before Sasnovich again leveled the tie by defeating Stephens. Sabalenka and Sasnovich were then selected for the decisive doubles rubber for the Fed Cup crown, but the duo were comprehensively defeated by Vandeweghe and

. Despite finishing as runner-up, Belarus's Fed Cup success helped popularize women's tennis in Belarus, and vaulted Sabalenka and Sasnovich into international prominence. Sasnovich said, "When we played the quarterfinals and semifinals in Minsk, a lot of people were coming to see our matches. They finally saw tennis in life, and it’s like a popularization... I want my country to improve even more in tennis, because I think we can have even more from Belarus."

2018–19: Avoiding demotion, another semifinal

Belarus was unable to repeat their 2017 Fed Cup success in 2018. Their quarterfinal tie was held in Minsk against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. Although Sabalenka won both of her singles rubbers, Sasnovich and

lost each of theirs to set up a decisive doubles rubber. Sabalenka and doubles specialist

Lidziya Marozava Lidziya Marozava ( be, Лідзія Аляксандраўна Марозава, russian: Лидия Александровна Морозова, ''Lidiya Aleksandrovna Morozova''; born 8 October 1992) is a professional tennis player from Belaru ...

were selected for the match, with Sabalenka playing on short rest directly after her last singles match. After taking the first set against

and

, they ultimately lost the rubber and the tie. Their next tie was again contested in Minsk as part of the World Group Play-offs, with

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

competing to take Belarus's place in the World Group the following season. Sabalenka and Sasnovich each split their two singles rubbers, with Sabalenka being upset by Viktória Kužmová. Doubles specialists Lapko and Marozava were chosen for the final rubber and the pair won the match to keep Belarus in the World Group for 2019. In the

2019 Fed Cup The 2019 Fed Cup was the 57th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. In one of the biggest shocks in this year's tournament, Romania upset title holders and 11-time winners Czech Republic at Ostr ...

, Belarus were drawn against Germany in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year. After Sasnovich won the opening rubber against Maria, Sabalenka won both of her singles rubbers against

Andrea Petkovic Andrea Petkovic (, ; born 9 September 1987) is a German former professional tennis player. Born in Tuzla, SFR Yugoslavia, to Serbian father Zoran and Bosniak mother Amira, she moved to Germany at six months old and turned professional in 2006 a ...

and

Laura Siegemund Laura Natalie Siegemund (born 4 March 1988, in Filderstadt) is a German professional tennis player. She is a two-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2020 US Open in women's doubles with Vera Zvonareva, as well as the 2016 US Open in mi ...

to clinch the tie. They advanced to face

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

in the semifinals. Only two players from each team participated: Sabalenka and Azarenka for Belarus, and Ashleigh Barty and

for Australia. Both Sabalenka and Azarenka defeated Stosur, but lost to Barty. In the decisive doubles rubber, Barty and Stosur won in three sets to eliminate Belarus.

Playing style

Sydney International Tennis WTA Premier (46000969795) (cropped)

Sabalenka is a baseliner. She has a powerful serve, and equally powerful

groundstroke In racket sports a groundstroke, or ground stroke, refers to a forehand or backhand shot that is executed after the ball has bounced on the court. The term is commonly used in the sports of tennis and pickleball, and is counter to a volley sho ...

s, and her game is based around hitting groundstroke winners. She has said "I hope all my shots can be strong, but my serve, I feel is the best." Sabalenka's strong serve, which can reach 194 km/h (124 mph), allows her to serve a large number of aces; in 2020, she ranked third of all players in terms of aces served, at 165. Her serve is inconsistent, however, leading to a high double fault count; she served 166 double faults in 2020, the most of any player. Sabalenka notably suffered from the

yips In sports, the yips (in gymnastics, lost move syndrome or the twisties) are a sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills in experienced athletes. Symptoms of the yips are losing fine motor skills and psychological issues that ...

from the

2021 WTA Finals The 2021 WTA Finals, also known by its sponsored name Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara, was the women's championship tennis tournament run by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as part of the 2021 WTA Tour. It took place at the Panamerican Tennis ...

and into 2022, serving 152 double faults in 11 matches, an average of 14 double faults a match. Her second serve began to show improvements from March 2022, following training with

Mark Philippoussis Mark Anthony Philippoussis ( ; born 7 November 1976) is an Australian former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winni ...

, with Sabalenka serving no double faults in her match against

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...

; this was her first match where she served no double faults since 2018. Overall, Sabalenka served 440 double faults in 2022. Her groundstrokes are often hit very flat, and are hit with relentless pace and depth. Tennis broadcaster and former professional player

Mary Carillo Mary Carillo (born March 15, 1957) is an American sportscaster and former professional tennis player. She is an analyst for ''Tennis on NBC'' and a reporter for NBC Olympic broadcasts. Career Tennis Carillo played on the women's professiona ...

praised the power in her style of play along with her fierce attitude, describing her game as "big babe tennis personified". Although Sabalenka has the ability to hit a lot of winners, they are often accompanied by a lot of unforced errors. In her first career top ten victory against Karolína Plíšková, she hit 40 winners and 39 unforced errors. Her second career top ten victory against

was similar, featuring 64 winners and 54 unforced errors. Her coach

Dmitry Tursunov Dmitry Igorevich Tursunov (; born 12 December 1982) is a retired Russian tennis player and current tennis coach. At age 12 he moved to the United States to train and further his prospects of becoming a professional player. His career-high singl ...

credited her improvement in the summer of 2018 on developing better shot selection. He said, "The major thing is she stopped trying ohit a winner with every shot." Sabalenka prefers playing on grass and hard courts. She commented, "This year n 2017I played for the first time on grass courts uring Wimbledon And I really liked it. I enjoyed my game on the grass courts, the feeling of grass, that's nice. I think my game is suited for grass and for hard courts." On clay, she made both the singles and doubles finals at the

2018 Ladies Open Lugano The 2018 Ladies Open Lugano (also known as the 2018 Samsung Open presented by Cornèr for sponsorship reasons) was a women's tennis tournament played on clay courts at TC Lido Lugano. It was the second edition of the tournament (the first to take ...

. Sabalenka frequently accompanies her shots with loud grunting. She said, "Honestly, I don’t even hear myself when I am playing." However, she expressed her hopes that her grunting has no disturbance on her opponents. At the

in 2018, the home crowd mocked her habit in a match against Australian Ashleigh Barty.

Coaches

Sabalenka had worked with Khalil Ibrahimov for two years up until early 2018. At this point, she began working with former Swedish professional tennis players

Magnus Norman Magnus Norman (born 30 May 1976) is a Swedish tennis coach and retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 2 singles ranking on June 12, 2000. His career highlights include r ...

and

Magnus Tideman Magnus Tideman (born 9 April 1963) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He won 1 doubles title and achieved a career-high of World No. 43 in 1988. In singles, he reached the quarterfinals of Toulouse in 1982 (defeating Thierry Tu ...

became her primary coach in time for the grass court season in 2018. Sabalenka briefly split with Tursunov after the 2019 US Open. Although they reunited later in the year, she made the split permanent at the end of the season. Sabalenka briefly worked with Dieter Kindlmann before switching coaches to her longtime hitting partner and compatriot Anton Dubrov.

Sponsorships

Sabalenka has been endorsed by

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

for apparel and shoes since the start of her professional career. She is also endorsed by

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson R ...

, specifically using the Wilson Blade range of racquets.

Personal life

Sabalenka has a tiger tattoo on her left arm. This tattoo has earned her the nickname "The Tiger", which she has used to refer to herself. Sabalenka has studied at the

Belarusian State University Belarusian State University (BSU) ( be, links=no, Белару́скі дзяржа́ўны ўніверсітэ́т, ; russian: links=no, Белору́сский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a university in Min ...

in a sports-related program. Her tennis idols growing up were

and

Career statistics

Grand Slam tournament performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Grand Slam tournament finals

Doubles: 2 (2 titles)

Year-end championship finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

References

External links

Official website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sabalenka, Aryna 1998 births Australian Open (tennis) champions Living people Belarusian female tennis players Olympic tennis players of Belarus Tennis players from Minsk Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles US Open (tennis) champions Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players