Aryna Sabalenkha heads into the Asian swing knowing she is currently one of the frontrunners in women’s tennis.
The world No.2 is on a 12-match winning streak after winning back-to-back titles in Cincinnati and at the US Open, where she claimed her third Grand Slam trophy. Out of those 12 matches, the only player to take a set off her was Ekaterina Alexandrova. Earlier in the season, she also won the Australian Open and reached the final of two WTA 1000 clay court events (Madrid and Rome).
In charge of overseeing Sabalenka’s performance on the Tour is Anton Dubrov who has been her coach since 2020 and before that was her hitting partner. Dubrov, who briefly played on the ITF junior Tour and made it into the top 300, believes there is still plenty of room for improvement. Especially, when it comes to Sabalenka maintaining the upper hand over her rivals.
“Everything,” Dubrov told The National when asked what improvements are needed. “Honestly, like everything. Starting with the movement, with the mental part also, there are things she can improve. She’s much better but she can still improve.
“And the technical part you never stop. Because there is always room to improve. And as you can see from all the champions, from their careers, the way they were on top all the time, if you look how they were at 18 and how they were at 35, it’s like two completely different people, so there’s always something to improve.”
Dubrov says there are plenty of players on the WTA Tour who are “really close to getting there (to the top).” Warning that any top player risks being replaced if they don’t continue working on their game.
One of Sabalenka’s biggest rivals is Iga Swiatek who is just over 2000 points ahead of her in the WTA standings. However, she has a shot of claiming the year-end No.1 spot.
“The goal is first to be fit and healthy, because it’s going to take a while to recover. The main goal for us this season is to finish on a high note,” said Dubrov.
“Right now, I would say we can talk about the No 1 spot, to finish the year as No 1 is a really cool goal. But as I said, this [run in New York] took so much energy and emotions so first of all we need to also learn how we can recover as fast as we can and set those goals.
“Because everyone has goals and says, ‘I want to win four Slams and finish No 1’. That’s a cool goal and you can do it but it just takes you a while to manage it.”
Sabalenka, who has already qualified for the WTA Finals, is scheduled to next play in China at events held in Beijing and Wuhan.
