Can Aryna Sabalenka reverse Slam slump at US Open?

The Sabalenka Struggle Continues

For the third straight major, Aryna Sabalenka has learned the hard way that when you’re ranked No. 1, everyone seeks to play their best possible tennis versus you. In the Australian Open final, Sabalenka was overcome by an inspired Madison Keys. At the same stage of Roland Garros, she was beaten by a tenacious Gauff. In the semis of Wimbledon, Sabalenka’s experience withered in the face of a sparkling effort from Amanda Anisimova. Each of these losses was a three-setter, certainly a testimony to Sabalenka’s own brand of resilience and ball-striking skills; but perhaps also, a demonstration of the way she goes about competing.

Even now, having improved her mental approach to match management, Sabalenka’s matches remain emotional rollercoasters. The sulk, the pout, the anguish—all richly and humanly on display. Endearing? Perhaps. Productive? Questionable. To her credit, though, Sabalenka is aware of the paces she puts herself through. “I mean, losing sucks, you know?” she said following the Anisimova match. “You always feel like you want to die, you don't want to exist anymore, and this is the end of your life. But then you sit there a little bit, and you think about what you could have done differently on the match. I mean, you see stuff where you wasn't at your best in the match. You see that the other player perform much better. You kind of, like, can see things better.” No one ever said life at the top was easy.

Past US Open Champions Now Point Towards Summer

Three recent US Open champions—Gauff (’23), Emma Raducanu (’21) and Naomi Osaka (’18, ’20)—did not reach the second week at Wimbledon. Gauff was beaten by 42nd-ranked Dayana Yastremska in the first round.

“Obviously I'm not going to dwell on this too long,” Gauff said, “because I want to do well at US Open. Maybe losing here first round isn't the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset.”

Raducanu won her first two matches, including an excellent victory over ’23 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, before competing well versus Sabalenka—a loss that was also a certain kind of victory. As Raducanu said following that match, “it gives me confidence to kind of have pushed the best in the world to play some really good points and really good rallies.”

Osaka was far more critical of herself. “I'm just going to be a negative human being today,” she said after a third-round loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. “I'm so sorry. I have nothing positive to say about myself, which is something I'm working on.” My sense, though, is that Osaka was mostly caught up in the moment and will soon enough be primed to bring all she can this summer on hardcourts, the surface where she’s won all four of her majors.