Aryna Sabalenka: Earning Her Stripes - Issue #23
From overcoming the strangest serving troubles in recent memory, to being banned from Wimbledon in 2022, Aryna Sabalenka is crowned at the 2023 Australian Open.
Written by Dove Sallow
Aryna Sabalenka is often referred to as "The Tiger." She previously stated that she made the choice to get a tiger tattoo on her left forearm because it reflects her aggressive approach to tennis. But I think there's more to the tiger analogy that rings true with Aryna. She's powerful, relentless, strong, and she's got the roar down. I've been referring to her as the Tiger Princess for a while now. But when Aryna won the 2023 Australian Open title, she became The Tiger Queen. After overcoming the strangest serving troubles I've ever seen in my life, as well as being banned from Wimbledon, Sabalenka's ferocity and determination led her to win her first Grand Slam Title.
The Belarusian's game can be described as power from another stratosphere. She hits every ball at full strength and is determined to dictate play at all costs. In addition to hitting the hardest ball, Sabalenka has one of the fastest serves on the WTA tour to match. She can hit tremendous winners as well as tremendous errors. But when she's in peak form and keeping the unforced error count low, she's almost unbeatable. Standing 6 feet tall, Sabalenka is a decent mover for someone her height. This is due to her natural athleticism and agility. While movement still isn't a strength, it's fair to say that it's no longer a weakness in her game. Aryna doesn't give her opponents the chance to play their game - she gets the first strike in every time due to her weight of shot on both her serve and return. This was never more apparent than at the 2023 Australian Open. She steamrolled through players like Tereza Martincova, Shelby Rogers, Elise Mertens, Belinda Bencic, Donna Vekić, and Magda Linette without dropping a single set en route to the final. She hit a speed bump when she ran into Wimbledon Champion, Elena Rybakina, in the final in Melbourne. As incredible as Sabalenka had been, Elena was also in great form. Rybakina had taken out Danielle Collins, Iga Świątek, Jelena Ostapenko, and Vika Azarenka on her road to the final. To simplify that, the Kazakh knocked out 3 Grand Slam Champions as well as last year's runner-up, only dropping one set along the way. Elena came out the calmer of the two. She served better and seemed determined to not "over play." She still played her powerful brand of tennis, but didn't let the occasion get to her in the first set. Rybakina won the first set and had some break points in Sabakenka's first service game in the second set, before Aryna started to settle in. The Belarusian seemed to calm down and find her serve just in time. Sabalenka saved multiple break points with big serves and aggressive ball-striking. Rybakina's serve seemed to wither as the match went on, whereas Sabalenka's improved. It was a close match til the very end, but Aryna won her first Grand Slam Title with a final score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. It was just one break in each set, which really goes to show how big of a factor the serve was for both women. Personally, I was gutted for Elena. She never received the recognition and respect she deserved for her Wimbledon win, not to mention the ranking points. But at the same time, I was elated for Aryna. Both women played an incredible match and I can confidently say that the two players who played the best tennis over the last two weeks made it to the final. That's certainly not something you can say for every Grand Slam Final. These two women couldn't have been more deserving, and I believe they're both incredible for the sport.
To truly understand what a turn around this Australian Open Title was for Aryna, we have to talk about her peculiar start to the 2022 season. The Belarusian arrived in Australia last year as world #2, but her serve was a far cry from that ranking. She started the season with two losses. Her first loss was in straight sets to Kaja Juvan (#100 in the rankings), where she hit 18 double faults. The second loss was in three sets to Rebecca Peterson (#93), where she amassed 21 double faults. Sabalenka actually resorted to serving underhand because she simply could not put a serve in the court if her life depended on it. It was confusing, frustrating, and the talk of the 2022 WTA season for quite some time. We all watched in amazement as the season went on, just wondering if and when she was going to fix the problem. By the end of 2022, Aryna had accumulated 428 double faults in 601 service games, over the span of 55 matches. She ended the season without winning a single title. It would be pretty hard to argue that her serving woes weren't the reason for that.
Sabalenka gives a ton of credit to the time she spent with a biomechanics trainer for fixing and eliminating her serving problems.
“I thought it was my mentality, but it wasn’t. We changed a lot of things on how we work on my serve. We tried so many different things. In the end of the season, when I started working with the biomechanics guy, he helped me a lot.”
When you're serving 20+ double faults per match, that's when it's time to have someone step in and take a look at what could be going wrong technically. For Aryna to be willing to change something as basic and integral to her game as her serve shows a lot of humility to me. Many professional athletes have an air about them. Some think they know best and others simply don't like to take direction. Aryna is not one of those people. She's stubborn, but in the best way possible. She's stubborn in the sense that she is committed to playing her powerful, overwhelming style of tennis - but that's what works for her. She's also stubborn in how she refuses to give up in a match, even during that dark period where she couldn't find her serve. But Aryna is certainly not too stubborn to believe she has all the answers.
Wimbledon's ban on Russian and Belarusian players has been a major topic of discussion for a while. The reason we're still talking about it in 2023 is because of the ripple effect it had on so many people/aspects of our sport. Sabalenka was one of those people. With Putin's invasion destroying Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian players were completely banned from the tournament - even those who spoke out against the war. Many found this to be unfair and cruel, while others supported Wimbledon's decision. Regardless of anyone's opinion on that topic, no one would argue that the Wimbledon ban made Aryna Sabalenka's already bad year even worse. In 2021, she reached the semifinals, where she fell to eventual finalist Karolina Pliskova. Even though she lost that match, it was abundantly clear that Sabalenka would be a force on the grass for years to come. When you're at the skill level of someone like Sabalenka, you are playing to win Grand Slams. That might sound narrow-minded, but it's true. Although tennis players' careers are significantly longer nowadays than they were 15 years ago, the prime window for an athlete to accomplish all that they want to achieve in their sport is not long. For Sabalenka, every year counts. And her absence at Wimbledon 2022 meant an opportunity lost. At this point, I'd like to make it very clear that I do not support Putin's invasion and never will. The Wimbledon ban was a tricky situation and I don't know if there was a "correct" way to go about it. I'm simply laying out the effect the ban had on Aryna's already troubling year. For someone like Sabalenka, who couldn't make a serve in the court for a good chunk of her matches, missing Wimbledon was just adding salt to the wound. It's worth noting that Aryna did make a grass-court final in S-Hertogenbosch and was playing pretty decently. With her overwhelming and aggressive style of play, who's to say she couldn't have found her serve at Wimbledon?
I suppose the most interesting thing about Aryna's 2022 struggles was how she let us in. Obviously, as a professional athlete, the world was watching every mistake she made. But Aryna really let us in on everything she was feeling. She laughed, cried, screamed, and emoted the whole way through, and I think it's fair to say that we were all along for the ride. Sabalenka's willingness to share those struggles with us made her endearing in a way that no other tennis player is. We felt the fury in her voice, the sarcasm in her smile, and the salt in her tears every time she served a double fault. That's why her victory at the 2023 Australian Open felt so significant. After feeling her pain as I watched her struggle so much last year, I rejoiced with her when she won her first Grand Slam. And I wasn't the only one. There was an outpouring of love among her peers (Ons Jabuer, Paula Badosa, Vika Azarenka, etc.), commentators, and tennis fans far and wide. I believe we were all rooting for her in a way, even if not all of us knew we were. I can attest that to the hilarious, dramatic, kind, and warm-hearted person that Aryna Sabalenka is. It's impossible to not root for her as she treks through challenges and faces them head-on, with the world looking in on her innermost thoughts.
When Aryna tattooed a tiger on her left forearm as a nod to her tennis, she probably had no idea just how deep that analogy rings true to her spirit. A tiger is brave and courageous in the face of danger, but also soft and loyal to their identity. A tiger is fearsome and tempestuous, but also calm and warm-hearted. A tiger is quiet, loud, and unpredictable all at once. Aryna Sabalenka is nothing if not all of these things - a Tiger Queen, through and through.
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