Aryna Sabalenka is the dominant player in women’s tennis right now, but the defending Wuhan Open champion has admitted she may never earn the right to join the game’s all-time greats.

Sabalenka lost in two Grand Slam finals in 2025, but ensured she would end the year on a high note after she clinched her second US Open title last month.

That win in New York secured Sabalenka a fourth Grand Slam title, but she is a long way short of matching the all-time women’s record of 24 major wins or the 23 titles Serena Williams won in her remarkable career.

Sabalenka may be the world No 1 and the player to beat in women’s tennis right now, but she concedes any hopes of climbing the ladder of Grand Slam winners will come up well short of the achievements of the all-time greats.

All of us want to beat all the records, I think it’s so obvious,” began Sabalenka, responding to a question from Tennis365 in Wuhan.

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“I think the right thing to do is focus on yourself, on your game, on developing yourself as the player and the person and if you deserve these big titles, if you deserve to beat some records, you will.

“So my focus is on developing myself as a player. And of course, I want to, but it’s going to be really tough to compete with the Grand Slam titles that Serena has.

“I guess for me, the goal is to go as far as I can in this sport, and I do my best every day. I dedicate my life to the sport. So I really hope that by the end of my career, I’ll sit back, I’ll look at my results, and I’ll be really proud of myself.”

Sabalenka’s winning form in the current era of the sport means she is rapidly climbing the all-time prize money list, with the $42,300,521 she has collected on court putting her in fourth place on the all-time list.

She will leap ahead of Venus Williams in that list before the end of the year, with Sabalenka content with her place in the game’s pecking order.

I feel like goals are so obvious, you know, and I don’t like to set up a goal,” she stated.

“I love to focus on myself, and that what I learned throughout the year about myself, that I have to just focus on myself.

“And anyway, whenever I’m there competing, I want to win, so I focus on each match, like step by step.”

Sabalenka went on to suggest she has grown as a person and a player in 2025, with the defeats in the Australian Open and French Open finals adding to her experiences.

“I think those tough losses and things that I had to deal this year definitely made me stronger as a person and better as a player,” she added.

“You know, it’s a learning process. And what I learned throughout the years is to accept everything and just do your best at the moment. And that’s it. Basically, that’s all you can control.”

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