Aryna Sabalenka insisted that she is not happy to see Iga Swiatek out of action as the Belarusian claims she actually likes it when the Pole is around and they clash against each other in the latter stages of tournaments.
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After reaching the Beijing quarterfinal at the start of her Asian swing, the 26-year-old is back in action at this week's WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan, where she started with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Katerina Siniakova.
On the other side, the Polish world No. 1 didn't play in Beijing due to personal reasons and she is also not competing in Wuhan. Last week, Swiatek dismissed her long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and said she needed some time to address the circumstances before returning to action.
While the Pole struggled during the North American hard-court swing, Sabalenka won the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati and also the US Open to shrink the lead at the top.
Currently, Swiatek has 9,785 ranking points while the Belarusian has 8,716 in her pocket. Since Wuhan is a WTA 1000 tournament, the 26-year-old has a great chance to further reduce the Pole's lead by making a very deep run at the tournament.
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"I mean, I love having this competition and I love seeing her in the draw. Yeah, I love to, like, get to the finals and face her in the finals. It's always great battles. I always enjoy fights against her. But, I mean, I hope she'll figure out the coach situation and she'll be back in the Finals in her best shape. Hopefully we can play against each other there in the Finals, yeah, put it into a fight for world No. 1. That's ideally. I'm trying to focus on myself and make sure that I play my best tennis and make sure I still have this opportunity to become world No. 1 at the end of the year," Sabalenka explained.
Sabalenka admits she wants to be the world No. 1
The 26-year-old never hid the fact that her goal was to win multiple Grand Slams and be ranked at the world No. 1 spot. And in 2023, she managed to finally accomplish both of her goals after winning the Australian Open in January of that year and reaching the top spot seven months later.
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In her first stint as the world No. 1, Sabalenka spent a total of eight weeks as Swiatek reclaimed the position following her victory at the 2023 WTA Finals. Since then, the Pole has been the top-ranked player in the game without any changes while the Belarusian briefly lost the No. 2 position in mid-2023 to Coco Gauff.
Further addressing the possibility of replacing Swiatek at No. 1 in the rest of 2024, the 26-year-old cracked a joke but also noted that it's something she definitely wants.
"Well, it's good to be in the top of the draw. You don't have to scroll all the way down to see your opponent. You just open and you're there (smiling). No, I'm kidding. I think it's been my goal since I was little. This is something that shows that I'm on the right way, I'm working on the right things. Especially having this rivalry with Iga is something big for tennis and something much needed, I would say, in woman tennis. To kind of keep this competition going would be really good for tennis. Of course, it's one of the biggest goals for me. Yeah, I really want to achieve this goal. That's a big motivation, you know?" Sabalenka said.
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Sabalenka would like to face home favorite Zheng Qinwen in Wuhan
When the world No. 2 met Siniakova on Tuesday, it marked her first Wuhan match in five years. In the past, the 26-year-old enjoyed major success at the Chinese tournament, winning back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
"I'm happy with the win, of course. Happy to be back in Wuhan. Especially like Siniakova, who is fighting for every point, it's really good that I was able to finish this match in two sets. Just happy to get through this round," Sabalenka reflected.
If the Belarusian keeps her unbeaten record in Wuhan in her next four matches, she will reach her third final at the tournament. And Chinese journalists asked her if she would love to face there Chinese tennis star and Paris Olympics gold medalist Zheng.
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"Yeah, would be really cool to face her. We only going to face in the finals. I think she's in other part of the draw. I really hope I'll be able to get to the finals and put it into a fight," she admitted.
If a Sabalenka and Zheng match happened in Wuhan, it would be a rematch of this year's Australian Open final - which the world No. 2 won in two sets.
