World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka Reveals She Contemplated Retirement Only Few Years Ago
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Aryna Sabalenka might be the WTA World No. 1 player at the moment, but only a few years ago, she considered retiring from the sport.
If some tennis fan stopped watching the sport in 2020 and started watching it again in 2024, they would be surprised when watching Sabalenka play.
The Belarusian player always possessed great power, which allowed her to overpower her opponents. She was also able to serve big, hitting many aces each season.
In fact, in 2020, she hit the second most aces on the WTA Tour, only behind Elena Rybakina and Serena Williams, and in 2021, she placed second in this statistic, hitting 357 aces during the season, only 30 less than Karolina Pliskova, who hit the most in that season.
But there was one problem. In 2020, 2021, and also 2022, Sabalenka also hit the most double faults out of all players. Her numbers were so bad that in 2022, she topped the standings with 428 double faults, which was 139 more than second-placed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
This was a huge problem in Sabalenka's game, but she managed to fix it. In 2024, she hit 307 aces and even though she still hit 205 double faults, that doesn't put her even in the Top 15 when it comes to the number of double faults in 2024.
On top of that, Sabalenka played 15 more matches in 2024 compared to 2022, which means that her double faults per match decreased from 7,78 per match to 2,92 per match, which is an acceptable number.
But when she struggled with her serve before hiring biomechanics and data experts, Sabalenka even considered retiring from the sport, as she revealed in a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar.
"It took me a lot to get where I am right now, and I’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices. It has definitely taken a lot of hard work, and it’s a long process. It’s not something that happens just by one click."
"A time that comes to mind where I had to show my resilience and where I was really close to saying, ‘Okay, I’m done’, was two or three years ago when I was double-faulting non-stop and everything seemed to be going wrong."
"I was thinking to myself, Okay, it’s time for me to give up and to quit … it’s time for me to retire. But then I realised I have so much love for the sport and there are so many things behind the scenes that I just couldn’t give up."
"I had to stay strong and try one more time, try something else to figure out my problem, and I think that was the turning point for me in my career."
Luckily for Sabalenka, that period is now over, and instead of struggling with double faults, she can focus on her victories and inspiring others.
"My dream is to inspire people, to be a fighter and to be an example of not giving up and going through whatever life throws at me."
