One of the toughest moments in Aryna Sabalenka‘s career was dealing with the untimely passing of her father, Sergey, in November of 2019. He had died unexpectedly due to meningitis at the age of 43. Sabalenka, who was just 21 at the time, started working extra hard towards a goal that she and her father had set during the early years of her career.
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The goal was for Sabalenka to win two Grand Slam titles by the time she turned 25. But Sergey’s passing affected this goal a lot, as Sabalenka started pushing herself extra hard to honor her father by winning as many Slams as she could. Seeing her daughter under pressure, her mother, Yulia, intervened and advised her not to be so hard on herself.
“She said, ‘What are you talking about?'” Sabalenka said in an interview with TIME magazine. “‘He was proud of every match you would win. Just you being able to compete on this level was huge for him.’ It really helped me to loosen up.”
Sabalenka eventually achieved the goal she had set with Sergey. She won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024, bringing her Grand Slam tally to two titles at the age of 25. She then went on to win the US Open title in 2024 and 2025 to take her tally to four titles.
Sabalenka opened up about how she would certainly be happy to achieve the goal that she and Sergey had set.
“This is something big,” she said during her conversation with TIME. “It gave me so much belief inside me. I became way, way stronger.”
It is well-known that the two shared a very tight bond. Sergey was the one who decided to let Sabalenka try out tennis when she was just six years old. He also helped improve her morale when things weren’t working out for her on the court.
“We just started to get closer, like friends. He was easy to talk to. He would be the person that would really help me to get back on track whenever things wouldn’t work well,” she further said in the interview.
Unfortunately, Sergey passed away when Sabalenka was still a relatively new player on the Tour and was finding her footing. He wasn’t able to witness her win numerous titles and become the World No. 1. It is likely that his passing made Sabalenka an even tougher person, and that was reflected in her performances on the court.
For context, the Belarusian had a year-end ranking of No. 11 in 2019. This rank improved to No. 2 by 2021. After finishing 2022 at No. 5, Sabalenka returned to the top of the game in 2023 and first reached World No. 1 following the US Open. However, she finished the 2023 season at No. 2 before ending both 2024 and 2025 as the year-end World No. 1.
Her year-end ranking has remained at No. 1 ever since, and she can retain that place this season as well. Despite not winning any Grand Slams this year and not having clinched a title since the Miami Open, Sabalenka still holds the top spot with 8,670 points.
But Elena Rybakina is really breathing down her neck with 8,316 points. Sabalenka can very well lose the top spot if she doesn’t perform well at the US Open. Having won the coveted title last year, the pressure will be on her, as an early exit would see her lose a massive number of points.