Aryna Sabalenka is aiming to crown a successful season with the first WTA Finals title in Ryadh after claiming four titles (two Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and at the US Open and two WTA 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Wuhan. She won multiple Grand Slam titles and multiple WTA titles in a single season for the first time in her career.

Sabalenka had a record of 54 wins to 18 defeats on the WTA Tour and won 20 of her past 21 matches. She recorded a 15-match winning streak which included her titles in Cincinnati and at the US Open. She leads the tour in hard-court match-wins on the WTA Tour with 38 victories and tied with Iga Swiatek for the most wins over top 10 players this season with 9 victories.

Sabalenka reached the final in Brisbane in the first tournament of the season beating Daria Kasatkina in the quarter final and Victoria Azarenka in the semifinal before losing to Elena Rybakina in the final. In the first Grand Slam tournament the Belarusian player won the Australian Open without losing a set and became the first woman to defend her title in Melbourne since Azarenka in 2013.

As the defending champion in Madrid, she beat Magda Linette, Robin Montgomery, Danielle Collins and Mirra Andreeva before beating world number 4 Elena Rybakina in a three-set semifinal. Sabalenka had three championships points in the final against Iga Swiatek in a re-match of the previous year’s match, but she eventually lost. Sabalenka lost to Swiatek again in Rome in a straight-set final.

During the hard-court season Sabalenka beat Iga Swiatek in the semifinal and Jessica Pegula in the semifinal to claim the Cincinnati Open title.

At the US Open Sabalenka beat Zheng Qinwen in the quarter final and Emma Navarro in the semifinal and Jessica Pegula 7-5 7-5 in a tight straight set match in the final to clinch her third Grand Slam title after coming close in each of her last three years.

Sabalenka became the first player to win the Wuhan Open three times with a hard-fought 6-3 5-7 6-3 win over Zheng Qinwen.

Sabalenka held the world number 1 ranking before the WTA Finals before Swiatek moved her past for the year-end by winning the year-end tournament without losing a single match.

“The ranking is really tight right now. It’s really now to see. I always say it’s one of the goals, but I prefer focusing on myself and still keep working hard. We’ll see see after the Finals if I was good enough to becme world number 1”, said Sabalenka.