Elevated: Sabalenka Shines on the World Stage

Mumbai: Aryna Sabalenka's exceptional performance against Jasmine Paolini at this week's WTA Finals in Riyadh showcased why she is currently dominating her game and sitting at the top of the women's ranking charts.

In the first set, aware of Sabalenka’s ferocious forehand force, Paolini kept peppering her backhand. Positioned perfectly at the centre of the court, Sabalenka returned every ball in kind. Running out of options and space on her backhand, Paolini finally switched sides and went to her forehand. Sabalenka opened up her left shoulder, extended her swing and blasted a crosscourt forehand winner.

In the second set, an angled crosscourt backhand from Paolini swept Sabalenka wide on the ad court. Sensing the Italian charging towards the net, the Belarusian, fully stretched and on the run, produced a fine lob. Caught surprised, Paolini backpedalled to barely place the ball across the net and keep the point alive. Sabalenka killed it with an inside-out forehand winner on the rise.

These are the kind of points and shots that have defined Sabalenka of 2024. One that isn’t just about that fearsome forehand and punishing power. One that can thrive on a more solid all-round game, court movement and throw in the occasional variety with aplomb. One that doesn’t crack quite as easily as before under sustained pressure.

One that, for the first time in her career, will finish the year as the world’s top-ranked player.

It’s hard to argue she isn’t the world’s best player among the women presently. Sabalenka had pipped the incumbent Iga Swiatek last month, but that switch had more to do with the Pole’s deducted points for missing mandatory WTA events. The Belarusian though has shown she can do just fine without any favours, earning her world No.1 tag by marching into the semi-finals of the WTA Finals that also ensured she will end 2024 at the top.

From a season that gave her two Grand Slam trophies and as many WTA 1000 titles, the year-ending No.1 spot had been one of Sabalenka’s primary goals. Probably because last year, having placed herself in a similar situation after displacing Swiatek at the top for eight weeks, Sabalenka was pushed down to second with Swiatek winning the WTA Finals undefeated.

The tables have turned, as Sabalenka swivelled a solid season to sensationally sublime.

Over the last three months starting from the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati to the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Sabalenka has lost all of two matches, one being an inconsequential group stage tie this week. The blazing run saw the two-time Australian Open champion pocket the US Open as well as WTA 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Wuhan, and wipe off nearly 4,000 points by which she trailed Swiatek at the start of Wimbledon. Sabalenka, incidentally, chose to skip Wimbledon (minor injury) and the Paris Olympics (cramped scheduled) to engineer this bullying dash at the season’s back-end with a clear target: year-end No.1.

Not that her first half of the season was bland. Sabalenka defended her Australian Open crown and made back-to-back WTA 1000 finals on the clay courts of Madrid and Rome, only to be halted by Swiatek in both. No woman across the season has defeated more opponents in the top 10 than Sabalenka. No woman across the season has had more hard-court victories than Sabalenka.

Not that this burly Belarusian is merely a one-court bulldozer. Across the three surfaces over the last couple of years, Sabalenka has made the most consistently deep run in Slams, reaching as far as the quarter-finals at least to go with the three hard-court Slams. It’s a reflection, much like those couple of points against Paolini, of how she has elevated her all-round, all-court game to complement the might of her forehand.

“I’ve been always working on this variation,” Sabalenka had said after winning the US Open. “I’m really glad that I’m brave enough to use these tools in those key moments. It’s really important to always improve yourself.”

That holds true for her mind too. Notorious for blowing away big leads in sets and matches and faltering with the finish line in sight, Sabalenka has held firm through those key moments of big matches this year. Compare how she handled going from 3-0 up to 5-3 down in the second set of her straight-sets triumph over Jessica Pegula in this US Open final, to her meltdown after bossing the first set only to be being blown away by Coco Gauff in last year’s final.

Sabalenka of old tended to be largely hit-and-miss. Sabalenka of now is more a runaway hit. And 2024’s season-ending world No.1.