When Aryna Sabalenka was a teenager in Minsk, Belarus, she would have long conversations with her father, Sergey, a former Belarusian hockey player who introduced her to tennis when they drove by some empty local courts. They did not discuss specific results or rankings so much as aspirations. Sergey, Sabalenka has said, was anxious for her to win at least one major title before she turned 25.
“We were just talking about goals and what I want and how big I want to go in the sport,” Sabalenka, 27, said in an interview during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March. “We were having our chats, and it was, of course, his dream because he was the one pushing himself really hard to make sure that I stay there because it wasn’t something cheap back then in Belarus.”
Sergey died suddenly in November 2019, more than three years before Sabalenka captured the first of her back-to-back Australian Open titles. In 2023, she defeated Elena Rybakina in the final and in 2024 she ousted Zheng Qinwen. She also won last year’s U.S. Open by beating Jessica Pegula.
But Sabalenka, world ranked No. 1, has never won the French Open, which begins on Sunday, or Wimbledon, titles she covets most. The closest she has come at Roland Garros was a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 semifinal loss to Karolina Muchova in 2023. Last year, while suffering from a stomach illness, she lost in the quarterfinals to Mirra Andreeva.
Sabalenka has also missed two of the last three Wimbledons — she withdrew with a shoulder injury last year and was barred from playing in 2022 when Russians and Belarusians were prohibited because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Two years ago she lost to Ons Jabeur in the semifinals.
“I think I still have a lot of opportunities to get those two majors,” said Sabalenka, who has a 34-6 record this year heading into the French Open with titles in Brisbane, Australia; Miami; and Madrid. “I hope one day I’ll be able to sit back and look at all of my majors and Roland Garros and Wimbledon will be there.”
Sabalenka has won just three of her 20 career titles on clay, all of them in Madrid, which is played at over 2,000 feet of elevation, allowing for even more pop and penetration on her already potent serve and forehand. Earlier this month, she beat Coco Gauff for the title there. She was then upset in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open by Zheng.
For Sabalenka to win this year’s French Open she will have to wrestle the title from the four-time champion, Iga Swiatek. Swiatek has won 35 of 37 matches at Roland Garros, including 21 in a row, but she has not won a title since she beat Jasmine Paolini in the French final last year.
Unlike in past seasons, Swiatek has appeared fragile all year. She has lost twice to Andreeva, twice to Jelena Ostapenko and she fell to Madison Keys in the semifinals of the Australian Open. She was also upset by 140th-ranked Alexandra Eala in the quarterfinals in Miami, a win that helped Eala rise to her current ranking of No. 69.
In Madrid earlier this month, Swiatek was beaten 6-1, 6-1 by Gauff. She then lost in straight sets to Danielle Collins in the third round of the Italian Open, a tournament she has won three times, including last year over Sabalenka. It was her earliest exit on clay since 2020 and prompted her ranking to drop from No. 2 to No. 5.
“Iga had such a large locker room aura on clay and now it’s been tarnished a bit,” said Tracy Austin, a two-time U.S. Open champion and Tennis Channel commentator. “When that aura is eroded it gives little signs of hope to the other players.”
Swiatek’s frailty may help Sabalenka in Paris. Sabalenka may not slide as effortlessly as Swiatek, Gauff, Paolini or Andreeva, but she makes up for it with power and versatility. Gone is the player who nervously hit double-digit double faults. Now she makes faces at her mistakes and laughingly blames her support team, including the coach Anton Dubrov, when she loses. She often refers to her training team as her family.
“I feel like she just got a lot better in everything,” Gauff said after losing to Sabalenka in the Madrid final. “Maybe she moves a little better, but she’s always been tough to play. I think she’s probably just more confident, so that’s why the consistent results are happening.”
Sabalenka said that those who discount her on clay were misinformed.
“I love playing at Roland Garros even though people think that I’m not a clay-court specialist,” she said. “I was so close two years ago to be in the final and have the chance to play for the trophy, so I’m super motivated and super happy to get back there and play in front of the French people. Maybe this will be the year.”
Sabalenka uses the word “heartbreaking” to describe certain losses, especially the one to Muchova at the French, as well as her defeat by Gauff in the final of the 2023 U.S. Open and her loss to Keys at the Australian Open in January. But the self-proclaimed “Tiger” (as illustrated by the tattoo on her left arm) is trying to become more like a goldfish, in terms of her short-term memory.
“I’m not staying too long in success, and also I’m not staying in some of the tough losses,” said Sabalenka, who used to work with a sports psychologist but has dropped the now-common practice in favor of sorting things out on her own. “I believe that’s the key.”
Instead of lingering over what-ifs, Sabalenka yanks a pink portable camera out of her racket bag and snaps pictures of fawning fans. When she lost in the final of a tournament in Stuttgart, Germany, last month — missing out on the prize, a gifted Porsche — she went out the next day and bought the car. She is trying hard to take a kinder, gentler approach to herself and the game.
“There are so many matches where I felt I should have won but they slipped out of my hands,” said Sabalenka, who believed that Roland Garros was tougher, physically and mentally, than Wimbledon. “I lost them by myself by making a lot of unforced errors. I was going too much into my emotions in those matches. But you know what? I have to say I have no regrets. Those matches taught me a lot.”
Sabalenka’s outgoing nature, including her friendship with the player Paula Badosa, is well-documented, mostly by her. She is an international influencer and a master of self-promotion. She’s also adept at working the room.
During the Desert Smash pro-celebrity event in Indian Wells in March, Sabalenka showed up at a reception for one of her sponsors, Dobel Tequila, and enthralled fans with her fashion acumen, bartending skills and dance moves. Her omnipresent social media posts feature workout routines, shenanigans with her coaching team and flowers sent by her boyfriend, the Brazilian entrepreneur Georgios Frangulis.
Sabalenka said she still deals with the trauma of losing her father so young (as well as her grief when her former boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov, died suddenly last year), but she holds her father’s memory deep in her heart. That’s why the French Open is so important to her.
“There was never a particular Slam that we talked about,” Sabalenka said of those early conversations with Sergey. “But in my head, for some reason, I saw the picture of me winning Roland Garros with him in the box. I don’t have that opportunity anymore, unfortunately, but I still have a big family, and they are my biggest support, motivation and inspiration.
“I know that he’s watching from there,” Sabalenka said as she shifted her eyes skyward. “So if I’m going to win Roland Garros I’m probably going to go crazy emotional.”
The post Aryna Sabalenka Wants to Win the French Open for the First Time. Iga Swiatek Still Stands in Her Way. appeared first on New York Times.
