Aryna Sabalenka won her third Grand Slam trophy at the 2024 US Open, and former players Todd Woodbridge and Casey Dellacqua think she will win many more.
Sabalenka has always been touted as a huge talent who could do amazing things on the tennis court. Her power was evident from the early stages of her career, but honing those skills and becoming a marvelous tennis player took some time.
Some might say it took longer than expected, and it's true, but eventually, she did become one of the best. After all, a player doesn't get compared to Serena Williams for no reason.
That's about as big of a compliment as a tennis player can get, and the Belarusian player was getting it very early in her career. Her breakthrough came last year in Australia, where she won her first major by beating Elena Rybakina in the final.
Her second Grand Slam title came earlier this year in Australia by beating Qinwen Zheng in the final, and the third one came recently in the US Open final after beating Jessica Pegula.
Former ATP player Todd Woodbridge saw all of that happen, and to him, it's clear that it won't stop there. Speaking on the AO Show Weekly Podcast, Woodbridge said that there doesn't seem to be a ceiling for what Sabalenka can do.
She's a fantastic tennis player who is very resilient because she's had some brutal losses in finals, but she comes back every time and learns from it. It's a wonderful quality for a tennis player to have.
"It looks like she’s going to win more [Grand Slams]. Three doesn’t seem like a ceiling at all for Sabalenka. She’s very resilient. Some of the finals she lost [she] really imploded in and to have the mental fortitude to be able to bounce back, learn from it, put something in place … shows that she [has] learned and she gets better from those experiences."
His co-host, former WTA player Casey Dellacqua, agreed with the former doubles legend. She named Sabalenka the overwhelming favorite for the 2025 Australian Open, the next Grand Slam on the calendar.
It's only about three months away, and the former Australian player doesn't think that anything major will change in the tennis landscape, making Sabalenka the number-one favorite in Melbourne.
"There are so many question marks over so many other players. I think Sabalenka goes in as by far the favourite for the Australian Open. There’s names in the draw but when you think about big hitting, powerful hitting, mental fortitude, I think Sabalenka is by far the favourite."
There are certainly some questions to be asked first. One of those is who will finish this year as world number one. Swiatek leads Sabalenka by about 400 points right now in the 2024 WTA Race to Riyadh. However, there are a couple of big events in Asia coming up.
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