Aryna Sabalenka is currently the World No. 1 player on the WTA Tour, but that is not enough for her, she wants to dominate like Serena Williams did.
The Belarusian player reached the World No. 1 rank for the second time in her career. The first time, it was taken away from her at the last possible moment, as Iga Swiatek ended the 2023 season as the year-end No. 1.
This year, however, Sabalenka will finish the year as the World No. 1 player, regardless of her results at the remainder of the 2024 WTA Finals, where she secured a semi-final appearance.
Despite climbing up to the World No. 1 position already twice in her career, Sabalenka has 'only' three Grand Slam titles to her name and seven WTA 1000 trophies.
Those numbers are still very short of the legends of the game, such as Serena Williams. The retired American player won 23 majors in her tennis career, and on top of that, she has another 23 WTA 1000 trophies, even though she didn't focus on those trophies a lot in her tennis career.
Most players aspire to dominate at Grand Slams, and that's what Williams did. She was the reigning champion of all four Grand Slams twice in her career. First, she won every tournament from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open, and more than a decade later, she won every major from the 2014 US Open and the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.
That's the kind of dominance that Sabalenka wants to achieve in her tennis career. In recent years, she had similar dominance, but only at hard-court majors. She won the last two editions of the Australian Open, won this year's US Open, and played in the final of the last year's US Open.
Speaking to Arab News during her participation at the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh, the Belarusian player revealed that she always wanted to have similar dominance on the WTA Tour to that of Serena Williams.
"I always wanted to dominate the tour like Serena (Williams) did, like Iga was able to do for so long. But it’s really inspiring, and of course, I want to dominate the tour like they did. But I’m trying to focus on myself, on improving myself, to make sure that I have all of the tools to dominate the tour as they did."
Serena Williams had rivals on the WTA Tour, most notably her sister Venus, and it's rivalries that many credit for players becoming even more successful than they probably would, as it drives everyone involved forward.
Sabalenka has the biggest rivalry with Iga Swiatek, and she is happy to have the Pole as her main competitor, as she thinks it drives both players to become better.
"I think, first of all, it’s really great that we have this rivalry. It’s really competitive and I really love it because this is something that forces us to improve and forces us to get better every day and what motivates us to keep working, keep trying to find something else, to keep improving yourself, mentally, physically."
"That’s great, I love it. That’s what sport is all about. It would be so boring and not interesting to watch for people and for us to play if it wouldn’t be that tight."