RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — What makes Aryna Sabalenka so tough to beat?<\/p>\n
Chris Evert, the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, paused for a long moment to ponder.<\/p>\n
\u201cPower,\u201d she finally said the other day from the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. \u201cI just think she unleashes power better than anyone. Sabalenka wins a lot of free points on her serve — it\u2019s so good, right off the bat or plus one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I see is how she\u2019s really locked into her matches. It\u2019s incredible, really. Sabalenka has added that focus and consistency to the power of her game. That\u2019s why she\u2019s No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now that power has metastasized into something far more dangerous: staying power.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, it was announced that Sabalenka has captured the year-end No. 1 ranking for the second consecutive season. The trophy she received in recognition at the WTA Finals bears Evert\u2019s name — for she was the WTA\u2019s first No. 1 when the current ranking system was put in place 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Sabalenka told reporters on Friday. \u201cIt just tells how consistent I am as a player, which is crazy to think. If you go back like five years ago, if someone would tell me I\u2019ll be that consistent, I would be shocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just tells me that the hard work pays off. I really hope that I will just keep doing what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka continues to chart a course toward historic greatness. The early-in-the curve comparisons are already top shelf. Sabalenka:<\/p>\n
Is the first player to qualify for the WTA Finals as a top seed for three-plus consecutive years since Steffi Graf (four between 1993-1996).
\nOnly the fourth player since 1972 to qualify at the WTA Finals as a top seed for three-plus consecutive editions of the event after Evert, Martina Navratilova and Graf.
\nBecame the seventh player to hold the No. 1 ranking for a full calendar year.
\nIn 2026, will attempt to join Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty as only the third woman this century to finish as the year-end No. 1 for three straight seasons.<\/p>\n
The No. 1 ranking carries with it an enormous responsibility. History is littered with players who didn\u2019t handle that pressure of expectation terribly well. Sabalenka has embraced it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s living it, she\u2019s loving it,\u201d her performance coach Jason Stacy said on Saturday. \u201cShe gets a lot of enjoyment out of this. It\u2019s partly personality, but it also energizes her. I think having that legacy, this wanting people to look back at her, look up to her, saying, `Look how she carried herself, how she held up to this,\u2019 \u2026 pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. 1 again: Sabalenka honored on court at the WTA Finals<\/p>\n
Said Sabalenka\u2019s tactical coach Anton Dubrov, \u201cThis kind of attention, I can say, she\u2019s like `Yeah, I can do it. I want to show people I can be here.\u2019 She\u2019s not afraid or scared to show up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking about her legacy, she\u2019s saying, `Yeah, this is me. I want to be someone everyone\u2019s going to look for.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Discussing Sabalenka, Navratilova cited her willingness to take some time off during the season to keep herself physically and mentally fresh.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe could have played Wimbledon last year, but her shoulder wasn\u2019t 100 percent,\u201d Navratilova said. \u201cThat set her up for the backside of the season. This year, after winning the US Open, she didn\u2019t play Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you win enough, it gives you a lot of freedom to choose your spots and take those breaks. She\u2019s not going to lose the No. 1 ranking when you have that much of a cushion. It gives you that rest and you\u2019re fresher than the other guys who are chasing her. That\u2019s smart to pace herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s round-robin match from the Stefani Graf Group against Jasmine Paolini represents another milestone. It will be Sabalenka\u2019s 500th Hologic WTA Tour match (excluding Fed\/BJK Cup) — her career record is a sizzling 364-135 (.729).<\/p>\n
Sabalenka will carry the No. 1 ranking through to the new year. When the 2026 season begins, she\u2019ll have spent 71 weeks in the top spot — drawing level with Caroline Wozniacki for the 11th-best total ever, with No. 10 Lindsay Davenport (98) next in her sights.<\/p>\n
After the first two Grand Slams of the season, that looked like anything but a certainty. Sabalenka reached the finals at the Australian Open and Roland Garros but fell to Madison Keys and Coco Gauff, respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about how you recover after tough losses, how open you are to improvement and to learn something new,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cWhen I look back in the season, I am super proud because I had tough experience at the beginning, but I never stopped working hard, I never stopped trying my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — What makes Aryna Sabalenka so tough to beat? Chris Evert, the 18-time Grand Slam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-238834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}