Aryna Sabalenkas season has become sparkling with her triumphs at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 and the US Open during the summer. The Belarusian champion took advantage of the negative moment of Iga Swiatek and proved to be the bestplayer in tournaments on the hard court.
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After struggling to find the right consistency for most of her career, Aryna seems to have finally found the necessary certainty on the tennis court and recent results attest to it perfectly. Sabalenka - who has already earned the math qualification for the WTA Finals - will try to take advantage of the prestigious WTA in Beijing to get even closer to world number 1 Iga Swiatek who will be absent. The Polish player was supposed to defend her title in China, but she will not participate following her period of crisis. If she continues to play her best tennis, the Belarusian player has a real chance of overtaking Iga by the end of 2024.
The upcoming tournaments are very suitable for the playing style of the 2024 US Open champion, who is in confidence and has all the inertia on her side. The psychological factor could prove decisive in the last part of the season, waiting to understand well the condition of Swiatek after recent disappointments.
Sabalenka is on fire
Sabalenka is perhaps the best player in the world at this moment and wants to give continuity to her excellent moment.Aryna is living a golden moment and has no intention of stopping. After winning, just like Jannik Sinner, consecutively Cincinnati and the US Open, the Belarusian champion wants to continue her streak of victories in Beijing. After taking a few days off, the world number two, already qualified for the WTA Finals, will be able to continue her pursuit of Iga Swiatek, who will not participate.
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Sabalenka is not aware of the great result achieved in Flushing Meadows: "I think I need some more time to realize what happened. I will return when the season is over, now I want to continue not thinking about it. I had about four or five days of rest, enough to celebrate, have fun, recharge and start again. I prepared well for the Asian tour. I would have liked to rest more, but I could not," he said.
The tennis player from Minsk has clear ideas about what she wants to achieve: "Finishing the year as the worldnumber one is one of my goals, but I try not to focus on that, but on my tennis. There are only three tournaments left, I want to play the best on the court. After the season, I will see if it is enough to finish the year as world number one or what I have to do to become one in the future. Being called the best player in the world means a lot. Its nice to know that you didnt waste time with all those hours of training," she added.
An important goal
Sabalenka has been working hard on herself over the last few months to improve her shots and find more serenity in the decisive moments of matches. I faced a lot of challenges on and off the court. The difficult one was also, like, being injured and not able to play Wimbledon. It was new experience for me, she explained in a recent interview.
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I also had a lot of tough losses in the past. I was always hoping that one day Ill be able to hold this beautiful trophy. Its been always my dream. Thats why its very special, because no matter what, every time I was coming back stronger, and I was learning, I never gave up on this dream, and yeah, you know, its means a lot she added.
The Belarusian champion does not want to put too much pressure on herself: I mean, Im not trying to focus on ranking, to be honest. Not like Im checking where Im gonna be after the tournament. Im just trying to focus on myself, and I know that if on each tournament Im able to play my best tennis and Ill be able to bring this fighting spirit on each game, Ill be able to become world No 1 again. So my focus is on myself, on improving myself as a player and as a person.
In case of victory in Beijing, the current World No.2 would overtake Swiatek at the top of the WTA ranking. The three-time Grand Slam champion had already become number 1 in the world in 2023, before being overtaken again by the Polish champion.
