96 Facts About Aryna Sabalenka

Aryna Siarhiejeuna Sabalenka was born on 5 May 1998 and is a Belarusian professional tennis player.

Aryna Sabalenka has been ranked as high as world No 2 in singles and world No 1 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association.

Aryna Sabalenka has won 19 career titles in total, 13 in singles and 6 in doubles.

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

Aryna Sabalenka continued to excel in singles in 2019 with three titles in China, highlighted by a defence of her Wuhan Open title at the Premier 5 level and by winning the WTA Elite Trophy at the end of the year.

Aryna Sabalenka finished both 2018 and 2019 ranked No 11 in the world in singles.

Aryna Sabalenka has a very aggressive style of play, often accumulating high numbers of winners and unforced errors.

Aryna Sabalenka was born on 5 May 1998 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

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.

Aryna Sabalenka 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.

Aryna 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 as her partner.

Aryna Sabalenka only played in one tournament in 2015, the European Junior Championships.

Aryna Sabalenka lost in the second round to top seed Marketa Vondrousova.

Aryna Sabalenka began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2012, even before she competed on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Aryna Sabalenka won her first professional match at the very end of 2014 in Istanbul.

Aryna Sabalenka won a $25k title the last week of the year.

Aryna Sabalenka won her two biggest titles to date at the $50k level.

Aryna Sabalenka followed up this achievement with another win over No 34, Lauren Davis, at the Washington Open, the 2016 runner-up and the highest-ranked player she had defeated at the time.

Aryna Sabalenka reached two quarterfinals to begin the year, but lost her opening-round match at the Australian Open to top-ranked Australian and world No 18 Ashleigh Barty.

Aryna Sabalenka then won her first matches at a Premier tournament with a third-round appearance at the Indian Wells Open before the early-year hardcourt season came to a close, including a victory over No 19, Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Aryna Sabalenka began the clay-court season by reaching a second career final at the Ladies Open Lugano, where she finished runner-up to No 20, Elise Mertens.

Aryna Sabalenka had stronger results on grass, playing in tune-ups during each of the three weeks before Wimbledon.

Aryna Sabalenka made it to the quarterfinals at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships and the final at the Premier-level Eastbourne International.

Aryna Sabalenka lost the final to world No 2, Caroline Wozniacki.

Just a week later, Aryna Sabalenka won her first WTA Tour title at the Premier-level Connecticut Open with wins over world No 9, Julia Gorges, in the semifinal, and Carla Suarez Navarro in the final.

Aryna Sabalenka was the only player to win a set against Osaka in the tournament.

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Barty to open the group, but lost to Garcia in the group's final match.

Aryna Sabalenka began the season by winning her third career WTA title at the Shenzhen Open, defeating Alison Riske in the final in a tight three-set match.

Aryna Sabalenka lost to 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova in straight sets at both the Australian Open and the French Open in the third and second rounds, respectively.

Aryna Sabalenka had been considered the third-leading favourite for the title at the Australian Open.

Aryna Sabalenka fared worse at Wimbledon, losing her opening match to No 139 Magdalena Rybarikova.

Aryna Sabalenka made the fourth round at the Indian Wells Open.

Aryna Sabalenka returned to China following the US Open, and produced three strong results in four events.

Aryna Sabalenka swept her round-robin group of Maria Sakkari and her doubles partner Elise Mertens.

Whereas Aryna Sabalenka did not have much success in the Grand Slam singles events, she produced much better results in doubles.

Aryna Sabalenka continued on from her late season surge by reaching the semifinals in Adelaide.

Aryna Sabalenka then lost in straight sets to eventual runner-up Dayana Yastremska.

Aryna Sabalenka rebounded at the Qatar Open, reaching the final with wins over Anett Kontaveit, Maria Sakkari, Zheng Saisai and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Aryna Sabalenka's 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.

Aryna Sabalenka had moderate success in doubles reaching the quarterfinals of both events.

Aryna Sabalenka then took the Linz title by defeating Elise Mertens in the final.

Aryna 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.

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, where she dropped her first set of the week, before defeating Maria Sakkari, in straight sets.

Aryna Sabalenka went into the Australian Open looking to make a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal for the first time in her career.

Aryna Sabalenka was defeated in the fourth round by 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams in three sets.

Aryna Sabalenka cruised through to the quarterfinals in the singles event, defeating 15th seed Anett Kontaveit along the way, before losing to Muguruza for the second time in as many weeks, again in three sets.

Aryna Sabalenka won the title at the Madrid Open where she faced Ashleigh Barty in the championship match.

Aryna Sabalenka then lost her semifinal match against Karolina Pliskova in three sets.

Aryna Sabalenka became the third Belarusian woman to reach the last four of Wimbledon following Natasha Zvereva in 1998 and Victoria Azarenka in 2011 and 2012.

Aryna Sabalenka continued her season at the Canadian Open in Montreal.

Aryna Sabalenka reached the semifinals but lost to Karolina Pliskova, in straight sets.

Aryna Sabalenka then lost her opening-round match against Paula Badosa at the Cincinnati Open.

At the US Open, Aryna Sabalenka reached her second consecutive major semifinal following wins over Danielle Collins, Elise Mertens, and Barbora Krejcikova.

Aryna Sabalenka began her season at the 2022 Adelaide International 1 as the second seed.

Once again Aryna Sabalenka struggled with her serve, recording 21 double faults for the match.

Aryna Sabalenka entered the Australian Open as the second seed.

Aryna Sabalenka's serving struggles continued, but she managed to dig out three-set wins against world No 128 Storm Sanders, No 100 Wang Xinyu and No 41 Marketa Vondrousova to advance to the fourth round for the second time in her career.

Aryna Sabalenka faced off against giant-killer Kaia Kanepi, who had defeated the 16th seed Angelique Kerber in the first round.

Aryna Sabalenka managed to save four match points during the match, but served 15 double faults to Kanepi's four.

Aryna Sabalenka found some form reaching quarterfinals at the Qatar Open beating Alize Cornet and Jil Teichmann, before losing to the eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the semifinals.

At the French Open, Aryna Sabalenka lost in the third round to Camila Giorgi, in three sets.

Aryna Sabalenka began the grass-court season at the Libema Open as the top seed, where she made the final, losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Aryna Sabalenka then entered the German Open as the third seed, but lost in the first round to Veronika Kudermetova.

Aryna Sabalenka opened the US hardcourt swing in Silicon Valley Classic, losing to Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals.

Aryna Sabalenka then played the Canadian Open, losing to Coco Gauff in the third round.

Aryna Sabalenka then made her best run of the season at the US Open.

At the San Diego Open, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Sloane Stephens in three sets before losing to Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals.

Aryna Sabalenka became the fourth woman to defeat the top 3 players at the same tournament joining Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams.

Aryna Sabalenka reached her first final of the season by defeating Liudmila Samsonova, Marketa Vondrousova, Irina-Camelia Begu en route.

Aryna Sabalenka entered the Australian Open as 5th seed and one of the title contenders.

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Tereza Martincova, Shelby Rogers, former doubles partner and 26th seed Elise Mertens, and the previous week's Adelaide 2 Champion No 10 Belinda Bencic to reach her first-ever Australian Open quarterfinal.

Aryna Sabalenka then beat Donna Vekic to reached her fourth grand slam semifinal.

Aryna Sabalenka won her 10th consecutive match by beating Magda Linette in the semifinals to make her first ever major final.

Aryna Sabalenka became the third Belarusian to ever win a Grand Slam singles title, and the first since Victoria Azarenka, a decade ago.

In Dubai, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Lauren Davis and Jelena Ostapenko to reach the quarterfinals, where she fell to the eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova in three sets.

Aryna Sabalenka then participated in Indian Wells, where she defeated Evgeniya Rodina and took revenge from Barbora Krejcikova for her last defeat in three sets.

Aryna Sabalenka represented Belarus at the Junior Fed Cup in 2014, with the team finishing in sixth place.

Aryna Sabalenka then made her senior Fed Cup debut for Belarus in April 2016, losing a dead rubber doubles match against Russia.

Aryna Sabalenka then clinched both ties, with wins over Michaella Krajicek and No 54 Viktorija Golubic, respectively.

Aryna Sabalenka was only ranked No 125 at the time of the semifinal, with no career tour match wins outside of Fed Cup.

The next day began with Aryna Sabalenka losing to Vandeweghe, before Sasnovich again levelled the tie by defeating Stephens.

Aryna Sabalenka has a powerful serve, and equally powerful groundstrokes, and her game is based around hitting groundstroke winners.

Aryna Sabalenka's serve is inconsistent leading to a high double fault count; she served 166 double faults in 2020, the most of any player.

Aryna Sabalenka notably suffered from the yips from the 2021 WTA Finals and into 2022, serving 152 double faults in 11 matches, an average of 14 double faults a match.

Aryna Sabalenka's second serve began to show improvements from August 2022, having worked with a biomechanics expert following the 2022 Canadian Open.

Aryna Sabalenka's groundstrokes are often hit with relentless pace and depth.

Aryna Sabalenka won her first clay court title at the 2021 Madrid Open.

Aryna Sabalenka had worked with Khalil Ibrahimov for two years up until early 2018.

Aryna Sabalenka briefly worked with Dieter Kindlmann before switching coaches to her longtime hitting partner and compatriot Anton Dubrov.

Aryna Sabalenka has been endorsed by Nike for apparel and shoes since the start of her professional career.

Aryna Sabalenka is endorsed by Wilson, specifically using the Wilson Blade range of racquets.

Aryna Sabalenka has studied at the Belarusian State University in a sports-related program.

Aryna Sabalenka has separately praised the Belarusian government for "everything that is done for the country in general and for sports in particular".

In 2020, during widespread protests after the disputed election, Aryna Sabalenka signed an open letter which stated that sport should remain outside of politics.

In January 2023, with regards to the war and ban of Russian and Belarusian players at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, Aryna Sabalenka stated: "I just understand that it's not my fault".

Aryna Sabalenka reiterated her non-political stance and distanced herself from the support of President Lukashenko after her 2023 Australian Open victory.