Aryna Sabalenka

Aryna Sabalenka is a Belarusian player from Minsk who came to tennis by accident: her father drove past a court, stopped, and enrolled her. She has competed as a neutral athlete without a flag at several tournaments since 2022, a condition applied to Belarusian and Russian players.

Hers is the most uncompromising power game in the sport. She hits through the court from both wings and serves for winners rather than position, and the years she spent rebuilding a service motion that had completely deserted her are the reason her peak arrived later than her talent suggested.

She won the Australian Open in 2023 and retained it in 2024, lost the 2025 final in Melbourne while chasing a third in a row, and won the US Open in both 2024 and 2025. That hard-court record makes her the most consistent big-match player of her era, and she is among the more candid interviews on tour.

‍