Aryna Sabalenka is a 28 year old Belarusian tennis player, the world No. 1, a four time Grand Slam singles champion, and the two time defending US Open champion. She has held the top ranking continuously since October 2024, she is second only to Serena Williams on the all time prize money list, and at the 2026 US Open she is three wins from becoming the first woman to win three straight titles in New York since Serena did it from 2012 to 2014. Here is the full profile.
Early life and family
Sabalenka was born in Minsk on May 5, 1998, to Yuliya Sabalenka and Sergey Sabalenka, a former professional ice hockey player. The origin story is one she has told many times: her father was driving past a tennis facility when she was six, decided on the spot that they should try it, and that was that. She has described him as the single biggest influence on her career.
She trained almost entirely in Belarus and, unusually for a future world No. 1, never played a junior Grand Slam. Her career high junior ranking was only No. 225.
How she broke through
She began playing ITF events in 2012 and turned professional in 2015. The turn came in 2017, when she helped carry Belarus to a surprise Fed Cup final while ranked outside the top 75, won her first WTA main draw match at Wimbledon, and reached her first tour level final in Tianjin, where she lost to her childhood idol Maria Sharapova.
The four major titles
The first two came in Melbourne, back to back in 2023 and 2024. The 2023 Australian Open was her first major of any kind and came in the same season she first reached No. 1 in the world, on September 11, 2023.
The next two came in New York. She won the 2024 US Open, then defended it in 2025 by beating Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6 in the final. That defense ended a run of ten straight US Opens without a repeat women’s champion, the longest such stretch since the tournament dropped the challenge round in 1912.
The one that got away is Roland Garros. She reached the 2025 final and lost it to Coco Gauff in three sets, and clay remains the surface where her margins are thinnest.
The 2026 season
She has not won a major this year. She reached the Australian Open final, went out in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, and lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Along the way in Madrid she lost a quarterfinal to Hailey Baptiste 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 after holding six match points.
New York has been a different story. She won her third round match against Kamilla Rakhimova 6-3, 6-4 in 53 minutes, one of the fastest wins of her career at a major, then beat Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-3 in the fourth round despite a first set in which seven of the ten games went against serve. That was her 44th win of 2026 and her 38th career US Open win, more than any player has managed here since her main draw debut in 2018. She is 23-1 in her last 24 matches in New York.
What is at stake in 2026
Two things. A third straight US Open title would make her the first woman to do it since Serena Williams won from 2012 to 2014. And the ranking is on the line: she has to win the tournament to be certain of holding the No. 1 spot she has occupied since October 2024.
The quarterfinal she just reached was her sixth in a row at this event and her 17th at a major. According to Opta, only five players in the Open era have made more consecutive women’s hard court major quarterfinals than her current run of nine, which dates back to the 2022 US Open and matches Gabriela Sabatini and Lindsay Davenport.
Playing style
Sabalenka hits as hard as anyone in the women’s game, off both wings and off the serve, and the career has largely been a story of getting that power under control. The double fault problem that nearly derailed her in 2022 has been managed rather than eliminated, and her best tennis still comes on hard courts, where the ball sits up and her margins get bigger.
The bottom line
Four majors, 24 titles, nearly two straight years at No. 1 and the second largest career earnings in the history of women’s tennis. What is missing is Wimbledon, where she has three semifinals and no final, and the French Open title she came one match from in 2025. At 28 she has time for both, but the more immediate question is whether she can hold serve in New York for a third straight September.