Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka

Aryna Sabalenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player, who is the current world’s number one in the WTA ranking. She has won three Grand Slam singles titles at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024 and the US Open in 2024, and two major doubles titles, at US Open in 2019 and the Australian Open in 2021. She has won 23 career WTA titles, 17 of which in singles and 6 in doubles.

Aryna Sabalenka was born on May 5, 1998, in Minsk, Belarus. She started playing tennis by chance after her father saw a tennis court while driving and decided to give her a try. Later, she began training at the National Tennis Academy in Minsk when it opened in 2014. Aryna Sabalenka had a late start on the ITF Junior Circuit, instead competing on the U14 and U16 Tennis Europe tours at a younger age. She won the title at the Tennis pro project cup in 2014, Baltic Wind, and Toyota Cup U16 in 2013. At the ITF Junior Circuit, she triumphed at the J4 Vierumaki \\ Vierumaki Dunlop and Alatan Tour Cup in 2014.

Aryna Sabalenka turned professional already in 2014, playing at the $10,000 Istanbul (Turkey), where reached the second round. In the next season, she continued playing at the ITF Circuit and reached the quarter-finals of the $10,000 Antalya-Belconti (Turkey) and $25,000 W25 Minsk (Belarus), the semi-finals of the $10,000 W15 Heraklion (Greece), before winning her first ITF title at the $10,000 Antalya (Turkey). By the end of the season, she also the title at the $25,000 W25 Pune (India) and finished at the runner-up at the $25,000 W25 Navi Mumbai (India).

In 2016, Aryna Sabalenka started strongly by reaching the final of the $25,000 Perth (Australia) and winning the title at the prestigious $50,000 Tianjin (China). By the end of the year, she won the title at the $60,000+H Toyota (Japan) and played in the semi-finals of the $100,000 Saint-Petersburg (Russia).

The star of Aryna Sabalenka shined in 2017, when the reached the main draw of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, passing through the qualifications. Although she lost in the first round, the fans saw her talent and skills. She continued playing in the ITF Circuit, finishing as a runner-up at the W60 Shenzhen (China), and reached the semi-finals of the $100,000 W100 Manchester (UK). Aryna Sabalenka qualified for the main draw of the Grand Slam’s Wimbledon, where she reached her first WTA win, defeating Irina Khromacheva (Russia) in the first round, but lost in the second round to Carina Witthoeft (Germany). Her next tournament was the WTA 250 Mubadala Citi DC Open, where reached the second round, but in the beginning of October made her breakthrough in the world’s tennis reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 250 Tashkent Open and a week later playing her first WTA final at the WTA 250 Tianjin Open, losing to Maria Sharapova (Russia). However, at the end of the year, she won her first WTA challenger title at the WTA 125 L&T Mumbai Open. Following such great results, she entered into the world’s Top 100 of the WTA singles ranking.

In 2018, Aryna Sabalenka was already proved to be one of the favorites in the WTA Tour. In January, she reached the quarter-finals of the WTA 250 Shenzhen Open and WTA 250 Hobart International, before playing her second WTA final at the WTA 250 SAMSUNG open presented by corner in Lugano, Switzerland, but again lost, this time to Elise Mertens (Belgium). During the Summer, Aryna Sabalenka played another final at the WTA 500 Rothesay International Eastbourne and again failed to win the title, losing to Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark). She reached the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open and finally won her first title at the WTA 500 Connecticut Open. Her form was perfect and she reached the fourth round of the US Open and in the beginning of October won another title at the WTA 1000 Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open. She finished the season as the world\’s number 13 and was awarded Newcomer of the Year.

Aryna Sabalenka started the 2019 season by winning the title at the WTA 250 Shenzhen Open. She continued the year modestly, reaching the third round of the Australian Open, the WTA 1000 Indian Wells Open, and the WTA 500 St Petersburg Ladies Trophy, as well as dropping at the start of the WTA 500 Sydney International, WTA 1000 Miami Open, WTA 1000 Madrid Open, and WTA 1000 Rome Open. In May, she played in the semi-finals of the WTA 250 Internationaux de Strasbourg, but at the French Open / Roland Garros was knocked out in the second round. During the grass court season, Aryna Sabalenka had a terrible performance losing in the first round at the WTA 250 Libema Open, WTA 500 Rothesay Classic Birmingham, and Wimbledon, with only moderate success, having at the WTA 500 Rothesay International Eastbourne, reaching the quarter-finals. Later during the hard court season, she succeeded to reach another final at the WTA 500 Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic but lost to Saisai Zheng (China). She reached the third round of the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open, and dropped out in the second round of the US Open and WTA 500 Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open, but defended her title at the WTA 1000 Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open and at the end of the season won the title at the WTA Elite Trophy. She ended the season as the world\’s No 11 but peaked at No 9 during the year.

In 2020, the WTA calendar was shorter due to coronavirus pandemic, but Aryna Sabalenka kept her form and won the titles at the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open, WTA 500 AGEL Open, and WTA 250 Upper Austria Ladies Linz, reached the semi-finals of the WTA 250 Internationaux de Strasbourg and WTA 500 Adelaide International, as well as the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. She ended the season as the world’s No 10.

Aryna Sabalenka settled as one of the top female tennis players in 2021. She started the season by winning the title of the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi WTA Women\’s Tennis Open and reached the Round of 16 of the Australian Open. She played at the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and the WTA 1000 Miami Open, before reaching the final of the WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, but lost to world’s number one Ashleigh Barty. However, during the next week, Aryna Sabalenka took revenge to Ashleigh Barty and defeated her in the final of the WTA 1000 Madrid Open, winning the title. She reached the third round of the French Open / Roland Garros, but made a fantastic performance at the Wimbledon, playing in the semi-finals. Aryna Sabalenka continued being one of the top tennis players in the world reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 Canadian Open / Rogers Cup and finished the season as the world\’s number two, playing in the WTA Finals Guadalajara, but dropped out at the group’s stage.

In 2022, Aryna Sabalenka did not start well and dropped out at the start of the WTA 250 Adelaide International 2 and WTA 500 Adelaide International, but at the Australian Open reached the fourth round. After the retirement of Ashleigh Barty, her main competitor for the world’s number one position was Iga Swiatek. Aryna Sabalenka lost in the quarter-final of the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open, the final of the WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, and the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 Rome Open exactly to Iga Swiatek. She also played in the final of the WTA 250 Libema Open and the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open. At the US Open, Aryna Sabalenka made another fantastic performance, reaching the final, but facing the world’s number one Iga Swiatek, losing to her for the fourth time during the season. The Belarusian tennis player finished the season as the world\’s number five and qualified for the WTA Finals Fort Worth, where reached the final but lost to Caroline Garcia (France). In the semi-finals of the tournament, however, she faced Iga Swiatek for the fifth time during the season and defeated her for the second time in her career (the first one was in WTA Finals Guadalajara in 2021).

Aryna Sabalenka climbed to the world’s number one for the first time in 2023. She stayed on the top for seven weeks from September 10th to November 5th. During the season, she won her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open, but also triumphed with the titles at the WTA 500 Adelaide International and WTA 1000 Madrid Open, but also was the runner-up at the US Open, WTA 1000 Indian Wells Open, WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. She also played in the semi-finals of the French Open / Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open, as well as in the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 Miami Open, WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and WTA 1000 China Open. She played at the WTA Finals Cancun, reaching the semi-finals and losing to her rival Iga Swiatek. In her head-to-head balance with Iga Swiatek during the season she reached one win and 2 losses. She finished the season as the world’s number two, which kept during most of the year.

Aryna Sabalenka climbed to the world’s number one again in 2024, reaching this position on October 20th and finishing the season as WTA No 1. She won two Grand Slam titles during the year – the Australian Open and the US Open. She also triumphed with the titles at the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open, the WTA 1000 Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open, but also was the runner-up at the TA 500 Brisbane International, the WTA 1000 Madrid Open, WTA 1000 Rome Open, She played at the semi-finals of the WTA 500 Mubadala Citi DC Open, and the quarter-finals of the French Open / Roland Garros, WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, WTA 500 ecotrans Ladies Open, WTA 1000 Canadian Open / Rogers Cup, and WTA 1000 China Open. At the WTA Finals Riyadh, she reached the semi-finals, losing to the champion Coco Gauff.