World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is preparing for the US Open main draw, beginning Aug. 30, seeking a third consecutive title at the tournament after losing in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in July to Naomi Osaka — her second consecutive early Grand Slam exit and, according to the article, her first straight-set defeat at a major in nearly five years.
Sabalenka, world No. 1, targets third straight US Open title after Wimbledon exit
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is preparing for the US Open main draw, beginning Aug. 30, seeking a third consecutive title at the tournament after losing in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in July to Naomi Osaka — her second consecutive early Grand Slam exit and, according to the article, her first straight-set defeat at a major in nearly five years.
Sabalenka, 28, lost to Osaka at Wimbledon in July, then took a vacation to Greece and posted content to social media before speaking with TIME roughly three weeks after the loss. She addressed a widely reported post-match press conference comment in which she said she wanted to 'go get completely drunk' and forget about tennis. She told TIME: 'I had a couple of drinks. I danced a little bit, I forgot about tennis for a couple days. But I never get drunk.'
At this year's other Grand Slams, Sabalenka reached the Australian Open final but lost to current world No. 2 Elena Rybakina in a comeback. At the French Open, she dropped 10 straight games to Diana Shnaider of Russia in the quarterfinals. A third straight US Open title would make her the first player since Serena Williams — roughly a dozen years ago, according to the article — to win the tournament three consecutive times, and only the third woman in the modern era to do so, alongside Evert.
Sabalenka has held the world No. 1 ranking for at least 100 weeks, placing her among 10 women's players in history to reach that mark, a group that includes Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert. She is the second-highest-paid female athlete in 2025, earning approximately $30 million according to Sportico, behind Coco Gauff's $31 million, and has sponsorship agreements with Nike, Gucci, Stella Artois, and Emirates.
Sabalenka grew up in Minsk, Belarus, where her father Sergey, a former hockey player whose career was ended by an automobile accident at 19, introduced her to tennis at age 6. Her coach Anton Dubrov, who met her when she was 14, said: 'Aryna was the one who always argued with the coaches. She was showing who she is.' Sergey died unexpectedly of meningitis at 43 in 2019, when Sabalenka was 20. She and her father had set a goal of winning two Grand Slam titles by the time she turned 25; after his death she said she pushed herself too hard to honor him through that target until her mother Yulia intervened.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine launched from Belarusian soil in February 2022 created tension on tour. Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players that summer; players from those countries still do not compete under their flags, and most Ukrainian players still decline to shake their opponents' hands after matches, according to the article. Sabalenka said Ukrainian coaches directed hostile comments at her: 'I don't want to repeat it. It was so terrible. So it got to my head, and I would be hysterically crying.' She also developed severe serving problems that year, finishing with 428 double faults — 151 more than any other player on tour. Before the Cincinnati Open that year, her team brought in a biomechanics expert; within a week she had rebuilt her serve. She reached the US Open semifinals before falling to eventual champion Iga Swiatek.
Before the 2023 season, Sabalenka stopped working with her sports psychologist. She said: 'I feel like at some point I started to overthink about psychology. I would rely a lot on that and forget about focusing on my tennis. So I decided to step away from it to learn on my own how to control myself.'
- The source does not state the specific date of the TIME interview beyond describing it as approximately three weeks after the Wimbledon loss.
- The source does not identify the biomechanics expert brought in before the 2022 Cincinnati Open.
- The source does not state Sabalenka's current ranking points margin over the field or specify what would be required for her to lose the No. 1 ranking.
- The source does not name or quote any Ukrainian players regarding the on-tour tensions with Russian and Belarusian players.
- The source does not provide independent verification of the earnings figures attributed to Sportico.
- The source text supplied appears truncated; some material may be missing.