Aryna Sabalenka takes every step to be the best player possible, including hiring a data analyst to provide her with vital insights.
Sabalenka won the 2024 WTA Player of the Year after an outstanding season. She secured two Grand Slam titles and finished as the year-end No. 1 for the first time in her career.
One of the Belarusian's most significant goals for 2024 was finishing as the year-end No. 1. Iga Swiatek's absence from the entire Asian swing, later found to be because of testing positive for a banned substance, helped Sabalenka.
The two-time Australian Open champion has a close relationship with her coaching team. Anton Dubrov became Sabalenka's main coach in 2020 after a previous attempt to hire former world No. 1 Dinara Safina fell through.
Sabalenka, who used to be called untalented by some ill-informed fans and analysts, credits Dubrov with her improvements in her serve and defense, proving the 26-year-old is not just a hard-hitter from the baseline.
The three-time Grand Slam winner's thoughtful nature is also shown by her work with the data analyst Shane Liyange, founder of Data Driven Sports Analytics. Liyanage has helped other WTA stars like Ons Jabeur and Karolina Pliskova.
In an interview with Tennis Majors, Liyanage described how he and his team assisted Sabalenka with her serve, which used to be the most problematic part of her game but is now a significant weapon.
"We saw the outputs of certain serves, the ball toss where she was hitting it from in terms of the racket head speed, wasn’t optimal. We also had data points to show that in pressure situations, the whole swing service motion was even more sub-optimal. We had all of those things."
"And then of course, the work that the biomechanics coach did, I think improved her understanding of her own service motion, but also fixed some of the technical flaws, which again, under pressure, was breaking down more, but I think the flaw was there to begin with. And the work that Gavin MacMillan did was exceptional."
"There was that one Australian Open where Aryna was averaging 20 double faults and she still made the fourth round. So she was giving 20 points to her opponent and still winning lots of matches. And it meant other parts of her game improved. And I think she opened up to working on the technical side because that happened."
Liyanage also provided details about the work done with Sabalenka to find the perfect balance between power and spin so that she has the best possible chance of winning matches.
"I think everyone knew that she was a big ball striker, but certainly in the last two years, it’s finding that balance between a big ball and a big ball with spin. We’ve found an optimal number in terms of forehand speed and spin rate that we’d like, backhand speed and spin rate, even the serve as well."
"She finds that range where that number there is bigger than the WTA Tour averages for both speed and spin, but it’s a reliable ball that we are confident she can make a lot of balls. It's actually a challenging ball because it’s still fast, but it’s spinning a lot."