How Aryna Sabalenka Managed To Emulate Serena Williams's Feat From Six Years Ago

Tuesday, 05 September 2023 at 21:00

byNurein Ahmed

Aryna Sabalenka's quarterfinal run at the 2023 US Open has a significant meaning to it outside the fact that she's guaranteed to clinch the No. 1 ranking.

Sabalenka's run to the last eight in New York also means that she has advanced to the quarterfinal stage in each of the last five Grand Slam tournaments she has played. The last WTA player to do so was Serena Williams back at the 2017 Australian Open.

Williams' run included two runner-up finishes, a semifinal finish, and two Grand Slam wins between the 2016 and 2017 Australian Open. Remarkably, in the previous five Slams before that, Serena won four of them and was a semifinalist in the last one.

Sabalenka, who reached her first US Open semifinal last year, to kickstart this great run of form at the majors, won her maiden Grand Slam singles title at the 2023 Australian Open. She was a point away from reaching the French Open final in June, losing a nailbiting semifinal to Karolina Muchova.

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At Wimbledon, the Belarusian again came within one match win from reaching the final, losing to eventual finalist Ons Jabeur in a defeat that only delayed her dream of becoming the world's top-ranked player. And now she's managed to not only reach the second week of the US Open again but the last eight stage of a Slam for the fifth time in a row.

It's a massive achievement, which highlights the amazing season that Sabalenka has had. She's managed to realize her lifelong dream of becoming the World No. 1 following Iga Swiatek's shock defeat in the fourth-round stage at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko.

Sabalenka, who is still in the tournament, is now the odds-on favorite to lift her second Grand Slam singles title this Sunday, and she'll face China's rising star Qinwen Zheng on Wednesday.

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Aryna Sabalenka: 'I Didn't Want To Become World No. 1 Like This'

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Aryna 🤝 Serena It’s five major quarterfinals in a row for @SabalenkaA at the #USOpen – the first woman to achieve this feat since @serenawilliams at AO 2017 💪