Aryna Sabalenka’s ascent to the top in the world of tennis has been nothing short of remarkable. A chance encounter with the sport in her hometown has evolved into a journey marked by talent and perseverance.
Her career hasn’t followed a straight path – it’s been a story of highs and lows, breakthroughs and setbacks, all shaped by relentless ambition. Now a dominant force on the women’s tour, her journey is far from over.
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From Minsk to the global stage
Aryna Sabalenka was born on 5th May 1998, in Minsk, Belarus. She began playing tennis at the age of six after a spontaneous moment when her father, Sergey, was driving past some tennis courts with his daughter in the car. On the spur of the moment, he decided to stop and let her try out the sport for fun.
Discovering she was actually very good, she began training and later playing competitively. This story is part of her official WTA biography, as she writes: “I liked it and enjoyed it, and that’s how it started.”
After training at Minsk’s National Tennis Academy in 2014, she was asked by the Belarusian Tennis Federation to play in professional events, rather than junior tournaments, in 2015. As a result, Sabalenka didn’t take part in the junior Grand Slams that ambitious teenagers usually targeted, competing largely in the Tennis Europe circuits instead.
However, because she skipped many of the regular youth tournaments, her junior ranking peaked at a modest number 225. Her first venture into ITF women’s circuit events was unsuccessful on the whole, and she failed to win a main-draw match, but this only fuelled her desire to improve.
Early professional struggles
After officially turning pro in 2015, she struggled with consistency, as her service would let her down, or she would suffer a mental lapse at key moments. This led to wild fluctuations in form, one week triumphing in a string of matches, the next losing in the first round.
Working with different coaches helped. Early on, she was coached by Dmitry Tursunov and Didi Kindlmann, before moving to Anton Dubrov, allowing her style to evolve and her mental resilience to deepen.
Known for her raw power, Sabalenka’s serve could reach threatening speeds and groundstrokes were hit with ferocity, especially her trademark forehand. Over time, she developed better shot selection, more consistency and a greater use of angles and drop shots.
Learning how to mix up pace and trajectory, she stayed physically and mentally aggressive deep into long rallies. Her serve became her greatest weapon and she learned how to manage pressure – such as break points and tiebreaks – with greater composure.
Aryna Sabalenka ranking
Sabalenka’s journey through the WTA rankings was gradual. In 2019, she made notable strides, winning WTA titles in Shenzhen, Wuhan and Zhuhai in China, finishing the year as world number 11. Sadly, in November 2019, her father passed away unexpectedly from meningitis, a personal tragedy that had a massive impact on the 21-year-old. She later resolved to continue, saying in interviews that she was “playing for him”.
The next few seasons brought mixed results, especially during the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Gradually, her consistency improved and she began beating top‑ten players more frequently in big tournaments, accumulating ranking points steadily.
A crucial turning point came in September 2023, when she first ascended to world number one after the US Open, despite being narrowly beaten by Coco Gauff in the final. However, her first stint lasted only eight weeks, before Iga Świątek reclaimed the top spot.
In 2024, Sabalenka won two Grand Slam titles in a single season, the Australian Open and US Open. Reclaiming the top spot in October 2024, she secured the prestigious year‑end number one ranking for the first time.
Success in 2025
In 2025, Sabalenka became one of the few women in recent years to surpass 10,000 ranking points, even breaking through the 12,000 points threshold – the first woman to do so since Serena Williams in 2015. As of October 2025, Sabalenka continued to hold the WTA rankings’ top position. Her margin at the top has even expanded, at times, beyond 4,000 points, a dominant lead in modern women’s tennis.
This year, she has captured three major singles titles, each of them on hard courts, where her aggressive, high-powered style is most effective. After winning the US Open in 2024, she returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2025 and defended her crown with a straight-sets win over Amanda Anisimova. It was a landmark moment, marking Sabalenka’s 100th career Grand Slam match win.
She also won the Miami Open, a WTA 1000 title, without dropping a single set, beating Jessica Pegula in the final. This triumph marked her first Miami Open championship, while it was also the moment where she crossed the 10,000 ranking points threshold.
She triumphed in the Mutua Madrid Open, defeating Coco Gauff in the final, defining her highs of the season. This was Sabalenka’s third Madrid Open title, equalling Petra Kvitová’s record at the tournament and proving how she could perform well at WTA 1000 level, even under intense pressure.
However, Sabalenka also experienced a few stinging near-misses. She reached the final of the Australian Open, but fell short in a tense three-set battle against Madison Keys. Then came more heartbreak at Roland-Garros, where she lost to Gauff in the final after a promising start. These losses underscore the fine margins at the top of the game, where form, nerves and conditions can swing momentum in a heartbeat.
She also endured a setback on the clay courts of the Stuttgart Open, where she lost in the final to Jelena Ostapenko, ranked number 24 – suffering an emphatic defeat on a surface less favourable to her style.
Throughout 2025, however, Sabalenka’s greater consistency has surfaced, as she has rarely lost early and has racked up final and semi-final finishes.
The person outside the court
Sabalenka’s natural charisma makes her a fans’ favourite. She is affectionately nicknamed “The Tiger” because of a tattoo on her left arm symbolising her birth year, the Chinese year of the tiger. She openly speaks about small joys, including having a sweet tooth and enjoying desserts made by her grandmother, including pancakes. Her leisure time is mainly spent with her family and friends.
Now, Aryna Sabalenka sits at the summit of the women’s game. The WTA rankings have her name at the top, and she’s one of the elite Grand Slam winners 2025, but her career seems far from its peak, with current form suggesting a player still on the rise.
Her goals seem clear: winning a clay-court Grand Slam such as the French Open, adding a Wimbledon title to her resume, and sustaining her dominance across all surfaces. The likelihood is she will also aim to further expand her margin as number one in the WTA rankings – making challenges from Gauff, Świątek and others harder to mount.
Now 27, Aryna Sabalenka’s journey from a talented six-year-old to world number one is a testament to her power, persistence and personal growth, weathering setbacks along the way that have only strengthened her character further.