A Sabalenka on the limit holds on to the US Open crown and world No. 1

The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka She arrived in New York under suspicion, despite her history of being a double US Open champion, in 2024 and 2025, and maintaining No. 1 since October 21, 2024, in the sixth best streak with 99 weeks, 104 in total. But since his Indian Wells-Miami double, his tennis has gone down.

At 28 years old, he had to listen to a lot of criticism about not attending too many off-court events before a Grand Slam tournament. She rejected any sporting oversight, applying herself on the track to show that she is still a reliable candidate for the title.

Aryna Sabalenka seeks a third straight US Open crownX / @WTA

Her chance of retaining world number one in the WTA rankings depends on doing a hat trick in New York that has not been known since Serena Williams from 2012 to 2014. It will be surpassed by the Kazakh Elena Rybakina if it reaches the semifinals, which will also bury the options of the Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegulapending the current number 2 and also with the need to be champions to reach the leadership.

The accounts are clear, Sabalenka thinks more about the crown than the ranking. And, especially, to recover his tennis. They have been stumbling all summer, they did not go beyond the round of 16 in Toronto and Cincinnati, losing in two gray games against the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova and the czech Sara Bejlek.

Taylor Townsend, of the United States, reacts during the fourth round of the US Open tennis championships against Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa) — Taylor Townsend, defeated by Aryna SabalenkaHeather Khalifa/Ap-LaPresse

In this US Open, she is currently the first tennis player to reach the quarterfinal round, after beating the American Taylor Townsend 30 years old and number 96, 6-4 and 6-3 in 1h.15′.

Sabalenka is very pushed to the limit, due to the relevance of the event, but her competitive spirit turned problems into successes in crucial moments, which turned off her rival, a doubles specialist who made life more complicated for the European than the scoreboard says.

Sabalenka resolved it after finding herself 1-3 in the second set. He gave up his serve, he got angry. He didn’t even calculate, he started hitting ‘sticks’. They entered and with a partial score of 5-0, a young opponent, the Ukrainian, is already waiting in the quarterfinals. Marta Kostyuk or the czech Linda Noskova. The queen, without giving up a set yet in the tournament.