The long game: Aryna Sabalenka's journey to the year-end No.1 ranking

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Last year, Aryna Sabalenka seized the No.1 ranking from Iga Swiatek for eight weeks after the US Open. Swiatek snatched it back by winning her last 11 matches of 2023, culminating with the title at the WTA Finals in Cancun. 

“I would say that I wasn’t ready,” Sabalenka said here last week. “I wasn’t ready for that sort of pressure, for the expectations and all that stuff. And now, when I went through a lot, I think mentally -- which is, I would say, most important part -- I’m more than ready.”

This year, Sabalenka caught Swiatek again -- and, following the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF, finishes the year as the No.1-ranked player for the first time.

“I think I have better understanding of my game, of my weapons and how to manage my emotions,” Sabalenka said. “If I compare myself to two years back, or like five years ago, it’s completely two different players.”

In the half-century of WTA Tour rankings, Sabalenka is only the 16th year-end No.1, one of the most exclusive clubs in sport. There are four Grand Slams each year, but only one year-end No.1. Since November 1975, when the ranking system was introduced, there have been 56 different women’s Grand Slam singles champions.

Only a sweet 16. That’s only four more than the dozen astronauts who have walked on the moon. Fewer than the 27 countries that comprise the European Union. Or the 22 U.S. Presidents to have won a second term. Or the 18 tennis players (men and women) who won the career Grand Slam.

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, five-time major winner Maria Sharapova, four-time champions Naomi Osaka and Kim Clijsters never finished as year-end No.1.

In terms of today’s elite tennis, Sabalenka is something of a late bloomer -- but she’s in good company. Since the WTA rankings were established in 1975, only Chris Evert, Monica Seles and Serena Williams (four each) won more major singles titles before finishing the year at No.1 than Sabalenka’s three.

Her ascendance was a leading storyline in Riyadh and the assembled players, including Sabalenka herself, were asked to weigh in.

“Consistency and overcoming some tough, challenging situations,” Sabalenka said. “I don’t know what they said. I want to know.”

Jessica Pegula, who finished the season at No.7, had a typical response.

“I think it’s motivating and inspiring how much better she’s gotten,” Pegula said. “I really have a lot of respect for the year she’s had and her team and how they’ve been able to handle.”

Sabalenka began the year by winning her second straight Australian Open but, measured against her high standards, the next five months were difficult.

There was a single win in February’s Middle Eastern swing and a combined 3-2 mark at Indian Wells and Miami. The clay season was better, but Sabalenka lost the Madrid final to Swiatek in an excruciating third-set tiebreak and fell to her again in the Rome final, this time in straight sets. At Roland Garros, Sabalenka was dispatched by 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals.

That was when a shoulder injury, suffered in Berlin, changed the trajectory of her season. Sabalenka and her team elected to skip Wimbledon and the Olympics, the two marquee events on the summer calendar, and that set up a marvelous run through the rest of the year.

Sabalenka won titles in Cincinnati, New York -- for her second major of the season -- and Wuhan and came into Riyadh having won 20 of 21 matches.

She won her first two group matches and when Swiatek was beaten by Coco Gauff last Tuesday, Sabalenka was the year-end No.1. Her relief was palpable, and that might have been a factor in losing her last two matches, to Elena Rybakina and Gauff in the semifinals.

Her record for the year was 56-14, almost identical to the 55-14 she fashioned in 2023.

“I think I achieved a lot this season, and there is no room for disappointment,” Sabalenka said in her final press conference. “I have to be proud of myself. I won two majors. I finished the year world No. 1, as I wanted last year, but I didn’t succeed.

“I have to look at this year the bigger picture.”

And, as the years pass, that broader view will be eminently satisfying.

Serena Williams became the first player after the turn of the century to secure the year-end No. 1 ranking -- a feat she achieved five times, surpassed only by Steffi Graf with eight and Martina Navratilova with seven. Only nine players have done it since, five of them currently active. Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Simona Halep are all well into their 30s, leaving only Sabalenka, 26, and Swiatek, 23, still in the sweet spot of their careers.

“We are all proud of her,” her coach Anton Dubrov said. “She did an amazing thing, focusing on getting to work, doing the right things on the practice side.

“Let’s see where this goes.”