STILL ON TOP: HER NO. 1 RANKING UNDER THREAT, SABALENKA STANDS FIRM

By Richard Osborn

Aryna Sabalenka has held down the world No.1 ranking for a staggering 96 consecutive weeks, dating all the way back to Oct. 21, 2024, bringing her career total to 104 overall weeks atop the WTA charts.

Let’s be clear about this: The 28-year-old holder of four Grand Slam singles titles doesn’t plan on surrendering her throne anytime soon, even as the now-second-ranked Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan narrows their point differential. But even if she is usurped in the coming weeks, Sabalenka knows her status as hunted, not hunter, will remain unchanged.

“You have the target on your back. Everyone wants to beat you,” said the Belarusian, the top seed at the Cincinnati Open. “But I feel like it’s the same if you’re No. 1, No. 2, No. 10. It doesn’t really matter what the ranking is anyway; when you go out there on the court, everyone wants to beat you.”

“It’s just extra motivation for others to go out there and be fearless and play their best tennis. You have to deal with players performing their best. You have to deal with that and get the job done.”

Tennis can be cruel, a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately endeavor in which players are often judged solely on their most recent results. A quick scan of Sabalenka’s 2026 will tell you that she’s uncharacteristically Slam-less on the year, having suffered some real gut-check losses along the way: Like the 3-love third-set lead she let slip away against the aforementioned Rybakina in the Australian Open title match; or when Hailey Baptise erased six match points against her to prevail in the Madrid quarters; or that deciding third-set bagel in her quarterfinal setback against Diana Shnaider at Roland Garros, after which she famously asserted, “[I] just want to quit tennis right now.”

Forget the fact that Sabalenka kicked off the year with a trophy in Brisbane, pulled off the ultra-rare Sunshine Double in Indian Wells and Miami, and moved up to sixth on the all-time consecutive-weeks-at-No. 1 honor roll, one spot behind International Tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert (113 weeks). But Sabalenka has grown accustomed to the scrutiny. She’s never shied away from the sometimes-unforgiving spotlight that comes with the No. 1 reign.

“I love it. I love having the target on my back,” she said on a rainy Wednesday at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. “I like to see the young generation looking up to me and getting inspired by me. But I feel like they’re also going to be inspired even if I drop in the rankings a little bit. Hopefully, it will never happen. But as long as I focus on developing myself as a player and as a person, the ranking doesn’t really matter.”

The women’s singles titlist in Cincinnati two years ago, Sabalenka will have one more shot at a Grand Slam beginning in a few weeks in Flushing Meadows. She knows good and well what it takes to win on the demanding cement of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. She’s the two-time defending US Open champion, after all. However, the 6-foot baseliner isn’t dwelling on the past; she’s doing her best to stay in the now.

“I don’t want to stop and look back, because every time I try to, I get completely crazy and emotional, because it took a lot of work, a lot of tough moments to go through,” she said. “It’s been a journey, a hell of a journey. I try to stand in the present and do everything I can now. Of course, I have big opportunities. I’m enjoying my life. I’m enjoying the challenges. Of course, there are sometimes downs. Sometimes you’re not on the top of the world. Sometimes you face some tough challenges. But I enjoy it because it’s my journey.”