Aryna Sabalenka

Aryna Sabalenka: the Belarusian tennis player with plenty of power

Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka is known for her powerful groundstrokes and for taking high risks in every situation. On the centre court, she sometimes acts a little unrestrained, but that also makes her unpredictable for her opponents. She was born on 5 May 1998 in Minsk and started playing tennis at the age of six purely by chance. When she drove past a tennis court with her father Sergey, they decided to simply give the sport a try.

An aggressive baseline game with a powerful serve defines Sabalenka

Aryna Sabalenka is regarded as an aggressive baseliner. She has an extremely powerful serve and strong groundstrokes. Her game is designed above all to win direct points with her groundstrokes. She herself describes the serve as the strongest shot in her repertoire. With it, she has already reached 214 km/h, one of the fastest serves ever recorded in women's tennis. However, Aryna's serve isn't always reliable, which means her double-fault rate is also relatively high.

She usually hits her groundstrokes flat and hard. What's typical of Aryna Sabalenka's tennis is the extremely high risk in her shots. This brings her plenty of winners, but she also tends to rack up just as many so-called “unforced errors”. Aryna Sabalenka has since tended to dial back the risk in her game somewhat. This improvement in her development is down to the fact that she no longer tries to win a direct point with every single shot. Sabalenka prefers to play on grass and hard courts, which suits her fast game far better than the somewhat slower clay surfaces.

The major successes in Aryna Sabalenka's WTA tennis career

Aryna Sabalenka made her debut on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour in 2012 and won her first professional title in 2015. She achieved her first qualification for a WTA tournament in early 2017. That same year, at Wimbledon, she made the leap into the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Her international breakthrough came in 2018. In New Haven, following wins over Julia Görges in the semi-final and a final victory over Carla Suárez Navarro, she celebrated her first WTA title. That same year, in Wuhan, she claimed her first win at a Premier 5 tournament after beating Anett Kontaveit in the final.

The 2019 season was similarly successful, as she won her third WTA title in the final in Shenzhen against Alison Riske and broke into the Top 10 of the WTA world rankings for the first time. Another milestone in Aryna Sabalenka's tennis career was winning her first Grand Slam title in the women's doubles at the US Open together with Belgian player Elise Mertens, after a final win over Ashleigh Barty and Victoria Azarenka. She also defended her singles title in Wuhan, prevailing there in the final against Alison Riske. In 2020, she celebrated her third Premier 5 success in Doha with a final win over Petra Kvitová.

2023 to 2026: A permanent fixture at the top of the world rankings

Sabalenka triumphed at the Madrid Open in 2021, where she faced then-world-number-one Ashleigh Barty in the final. With her fourth WTA 1000 title, she climbed into the world's Top 5. Seeded second at Wimbledon, Sabalenka reached both the quarter-final and semi-final of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Her major breakthrough then followed in January 2023 at the Australian Open, where she beat reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in three sets in the final to win her first Grand Slam title. This also made her only the second Belarusian ever to win a Grand Slam singles title — the first since Victoria Azarenka. At the French Open 2023, Sabalenka marched into the semi-final without dropping a set, but lost there to her opponent.

She nevertheless continued her impressive run and reached her fourth consecutive Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon. She achieved the same feat at the US Open, making Sabalenka the first player since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the semi-final at all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year. In September 2023, she stood atop the world rankings for the first time. At the Australian Open 2024, she defended her title without dropping a set, and in September 2024 she also won the US Open for the first time.

Since October 2024, Aryna Sabalenka has stood uninterrupted at the top of the world rankings. The 2025 season was her most successful yet: with titles in Brisbane, Miami and Madrid, plus a second US Open triumph (a final win over Amanda Anisimova), she ended the year as world number 1 for the second year running. In 2026, she lost the Australian Open final to Elena Rybakina, but went on to win both Indian Wells and Miami, becoming the first player of any gender ever to celebrate the “Sunshine Double” in both singles and doubles.

Strong performances in women's doubles too

At the Australian Open 2021, Aryna Sabalenka once again demonstrated her strong doubles form alongside Elise Mertens, winning the trophy with a clear 6-2, 6-3 final victory over Czechs Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková.

Sabalenka has also become an indispensable part of the Belarusian Fed Cup team, both in singles and doubles. She made her Fed Cup team debut in 2016 in a 3-2 playoff win over Russia.

By the way: the 1.82-metre-tall Aryna Sabalenka enjoys meeting up with friends or losing herself in a good book in her free time. Her favourite book is “The Count of Monte Cristo”. She names “Titanic”, “Home Alone” and “The Fighter” as her favourite films. In tennis, she names Roger Federer as her great role model.

Buy Aryna Sabalenka's gear: racket, shoes & tennis apparel at Tennis-Point

At Tennis-Point you'll find tennis products from all the leading brands. That means you can wear the same items as the tennis professionals at your next tennis tournament. In our tennis shop, we naturally also stock Aryna Sabalenka's Wilson Blade tennis racket and the matching Luxilon tennis strings.

On court, Sabalenka also relies on Nike: her Nike Vapor tennis shoes — sometimes even in her own signature colourway — are available at Tennis-Point, just like the rest of her gear.

Sabalenka stores her tennis accessories in Wilson tennis bags. She likes to present herself in eye-catching, colourful tennis apparel by Nike and is regarded as one of the fashion icons among the WTA professionals.