Mumbai: “I just want to go, get completely drunk, forget about tennis.” — Aryna Sabalenka after Wimbledon.
“No thoughts, no emotions. I just want to quit tennis right now.” — Aryna Sabalenka after the French Open.
Not the words you tend to hear from a multiple-time Grand Slam champion. Certainly not from the world No.1 for nearly a hundred weeks running.
Emotions often run raw and ragged for the Belarusian soon after defeats in Majors, but these lines at the end of her two most recent Slams sum up the Sabalenka slump. One that she will desperately look to arrest at the season-ending US Open, starting Sunday, as the two-time defending champion.
The flag-bearer of consistency on the big stages for the last couple of years — the kind seldom seen in the modern women’s tour — Sabalenka stares at her first Slam-less season since 2022. And, for the first time since October 2024, the possibility of the world No.1 crown being taken away from her.
That possibility is all too real. For the 28-year-old to keep that crown, and go a cool 100 straight weeks at the top, she will have to win her third straight title in New York and hope Elena Rybakina, the world No.2 breathing down her neck, does not reach the semi-finals.
Going by her recent form, it would take something special for the four-time Slam champion to go all the way. Perhaps that finest Sabalenka spectacle of power-hitting and ruthlessness from this faltering, often feeble, Sabalenka that has been on show for the past few months. That this slump came seemingly out of nowhere makes it all the more surprising.
Sabalenka began the season by winning 26 of her 27 matches. The lone defeat came in the Australian Open final (to Rybakina), and the three titles came in Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami. The latter two in March made her only the fifth woman in history to script a Sunshine Double.
It’s been gloomy since. From April, she has a scrappy 17-7 win-loss record, headlined by early exits in the French Open quarter-final and Wimbledon fourth round, her poorest Grand Slam finish since 2022. That defeat in London, to Naomi Osaka, was also her first in straight sets in a major in six years.
That has been the most glaring aspect of the downturn. Regardless of her tour results, Sabalenka was always at the deep end of Slams after becoming a first-time champion three years ago. From that 2023 Australian Open to this 2026 Australian Open, she won four titles, made four finals, three semi-finals, and one quarter-final.
That solid streak has made way for a susceptible slide. And that slide has been accompanied by a familiar foe.
One of Sabalenka’s historical weaknesses is her mid-match meltdowns, at times with the mind and at times with the baseline play that suddenly goes from boom to bust.
While she worked on addressing the issue over the last couple of seasons, it surfaced again in the French Open when, leading 6-3, 4-1 against Diana Shnaider as the runaway favourite for the match and the tournament, she lost 12 of the next 13 games.
Such stunning Sabalenka collapses would usually crop up in high-stakes battles at majors. More worryingly for her, it crept into her third-round match at the WTA Cincinnati last week as well.
Playing Sara Bejlek, the world No.29 Czech, Sabalenka led 5-1 in the first set tie‑break before losing five games in a row and the set, and then 4-1 in the second set before surrendering the next five games and the match.
It’s the manner of these defeats that could be increasingly concerning for Sabalenka. And, the stature of the opponents: Bejlek in Cincinnati, Ekaterina Alexandrova in Toronto, Shnaider in Paris, Sorana Cirstea in Rome, and Hailey Baptiste in Madrid. Six of her seven losses since April have been against players outside the top 10, including Osaka at Wimbledon.
These are the kind of match-ups that the world No.1 would have little trouble getting through over the past couple of years. Or even in the first half of the season. The second half has been a troublesome tale of her own.
Can the US Open, where she comes in with the best Slam record (34-6) and as a two-time defending champion, flip that for Sabalenka?
