Aryna Sabalenka becomes only the 8th player to become World No.1 in both Singles and Doubles as she joins elite list featuring Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, and others

Sabalenka became the 29th player to be ranked No. 1 in the world on the WTA Tour.

Aryna Sabalenka becomes only the 8th player to become World No.1 in both Singles and Doubles as she joins elite list featuring Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, and others

Aryna Sabalenka and Serena Williams (Credits : Getty Images and USTA)

19-year-old Coco Gauff created history on Saturday as she came back from a set down to become the first American teenager to win the country’s major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999. The 6th seed defeated the newly crowned No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to clinch her first Grand Slam title. With the win, she also became the first American to win a US Open singles title since Sloane Stephens in 2017.

Although the Australian Open champion had a dominant start to the match, she missed quite a few easy approach shots. Sabalenka looked completely out of sorts after the first set as she lost her forehand. Meanwhile, Gauff didn’t give up any easy points, as she was superb while defending on both the backhand and forehand sides.

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The Belarusian might take consolation in the fact that she has taken the women’s singles World No. 1 spot for the first time. Heading into the tournament, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka had to match or better Iga Swiatek’s performance to take the World No. 1 title for the first time in her career. She was guaranteed the spot after Swiatek suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko in the fourth round of the US Open 2023.

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Sabalenka has already held the No. 1 title in women’s doubles. She has won two major doubles titles, at the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open. Sabalenka ascended to world No. 1 in the doubles rankings after winning the Australian Open alongside Elise Mertens.

After reaching the No. 1 spot in singles on Monday, she has become the eighth World No. 1 in the WTA Rankings in both singles and doubles after Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the Williams sisters, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, and Kim Clijsters.

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Aryna Sabalenka talks about the improvements she has made to her game

Aryna Sabalenka US Open semifinal win
Aryna Sabalenka after winning against Madison Keys (Image via US Open)

In an interview with WTA Insider, Sabalenka talked about the improvements she has made to her game to vary her skill sets. The Belarusian player has always been known as a power player because of her hard groundstrokes and fast serve. However, she said that she had always known that she had to broaden her skill set, but she didn’t have a team to help her with it.

“Now I have, I think, the best team for me. They’re always thinking how to improve my game. What do we have to do physically to be ready for all these long rallies on court, to know how to play in defense. It’s been really hard to improve all those aspects of my game. It takes some time. Sometimes you have to just work on some things and don’t expect them to work well in the first match. Sometimes it takes weeks or months, Sometimes it takes a year,” she added.

Sabalenka would hope to go one step further at the WTA finals scheduled from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 in Cancun, Mexico. She was defeated in the final last year by Caroline Garcia in straight sets.

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