The overwhelming Aryna Sabalenka, number two in the world and the tennis player who hits the ball the hardest, started the year like a shot: she reached the final in Brisbane, where she lost to the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (4th in the ranking), and won the Australian Open in formidable fashion, his second Grand Slam after the one he won in 2023 also in Melbourne. Since then, four defeats and four victories. His downturn, which began at the end of February in the Dubai tournament – where he lost in his debut against the Croatian Donna Vekic (38th) – has been combined with the death of his ex-partner, the former professional ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, who lost his life last March at the age of 42 in what Miami police described as an “apparent suicide.” The Belarusian, 25 years old (26 on May 5), has hardly spoken about the subject publicly. On her Instagram account she said that her heart was broken even though they were no longer a couple, and she asked for respect for her private life. Just a few days after her death, Sabalenka took to the court and defeated her friend Paula Bodasa (101st) in the Miami Masters, but lost in the next round to Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina (31st). After also losing last week in her second match in Stuttgart against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova (7th), this Friday she made her debut with a victory against the Polish Magda Linette (6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 2h 12m) in his defense of the Mutua Madrid Open, the only tournament he has won on clay (2023 and 2021).

Madrid is the setting where Sabalenka (right-handed) performs best on clay. In 2021, at 23 years old, she became the second-youngest winner of the event, behind Czech Petra Kvitova, who was crowned in 2011 at 21 years old. It was her first success on clay. Her second and last came last year, in a tremendous final in which she knocked down the world number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek. The match went to the third set, where Sabalenka’s (1.82 meters tall) blows decided it.

Its heavy ball flows especially in Madrid due to the city’s 657 meters above sea level. The altitude makes the Belarusian’s rackets even more indomitable, with greater flight and speed. This Friday Magda Linette suffered it. The Pole has stood up to her, but she has finally seen how the Minsk bomber took the match despite having won fewer points than her (90 to 92) thanks to a shower of winners in the last two games: the break to make it 5-3 and the serve with which he closed the match. “There are a lot of things why I like Madrid. The atmosphere is incredible and so is the quality of the track. The altitude definitely helps me, the bounces (of the ball) help me,” Sabalenka acknowledged in a press conference after his victory, in which he reached 196 kilometers per hour, above many players on the circuit. male.

The Belarusian is in full fight with Swiatek to take the world number one from him. Last year she achieved it briefly, between September and November (a little less than two months). Madrid is the only tournament on land in which she has managed to defeat the Pole. In the clashes in Rome (2022) and Stuttgart (2022 and 2023) she fell in all of them, and could not even win a set. On hard court she also dominates number one, with three wins and two losses (6-3 overall with clay matches).

To take the throne from Swiatek, who has dominated the circuit since the Australian Ashleigh Barty retired in 2022, Sabalenka needs to improve her results on clay, where last year she finally reached the semifinal of Roland Garros, a major in which even then he had not managed to get past the third round. “The important thing is to be ready and prepared to have great battles. I’m going to make sure I fight for every point and, if I have opportunities, take advantage of them. That is my mentality for the clay court tour,” said the Belarusian in her first press conference after arriving in Madrid. Behind her, she is also pursued by the North American Coco Gauff (3rd, less than 600 points behind Sabalenka) and the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (4th, about 1,500 points). Both are in Madrid—Gauff won yesterday and Rybakina today—and they can close the gap these days, even snatch second place in the ranking WTA depending on what each of them does in the tournament.

To start winning titles (total 14), Sabalenka knew how to polish herself and correct the defect she had in the service, with which she committed many double faults. He hired a biomechanist and managed to improve the technique. He also took a step forward physically and evolved his footwork. In Madrid, 2024 is the sixth year that he competes. In 2018, 2019 and 2022 he fell in the first round, but the previous two times in which he managed to overcome the first step (2021 and 2023), as he has done today, he won the trophy on his favorite clay court .

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