Aryna Sabalenka reveals why she lost ‘focus’ during WTA Finals campaign
Aryna Sabalenka has admitted that talk surrounding her battle to finish 2024 as the WTA year-end No 1 caused her to lose “focus” at the WTA Finals.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka sealed the year-end No 1 ranking for the first time during the year-end championships in Riyadh.
The Belarusian won her first two matches against Zheng Qinwen and Jasmine Paolini, with Iga Swiatek’s group stage loss to Coco Gauff then proving enough for Sabalenka to capture the year-end ranking.
However, pre-tournament favourite Sabalenka was then beaten by Elena Rybakina in her final group stage match the next day, and then fell to eventual champion Gauff in the last four.
Speaking on Served with Andy Roddick, the 26-year-old revealed she was not thinking about year-end No 1 pre-tournament – but repeated questions regarding it ultimately distracted her.
She said: “I wasn’t really focused on the No 1 ranking, and what I should do to finish the year as world number one. I didn’t do that, I was like: ‘whatever’.
“They asked me: ‘Do you know what you have to do to finish the year as world number one?’
“I was like: ‘No and don’t tell me, please. I don’t want to know that I just wanted to focus on my tennis and just stay focused.’
“You see, after winning two matches, the news was everywhere, and I was just like: ‘Please, don’t do that to me.’
“That’s probably why I kind of lost my focus. I don’t know, at that moment I felt like I did everything I could in this season. I don’t have any energy left to compete and to fight.”
WTA Tour News
Emma Raducanu defended by Billie Jean King with ‘very patient’ message
Ranked! The 9 most improved WTA players of 2024 – ft. Paolini, Qinwen, Andreeva
Sabalenka ultimately finished 2024 on 9,416 points, comfortably ahead of world No 2 Swiatek on 8,370 points.
The Belarusian had been in line to finish 2023 as the year-end No 1 but was knocked off the top spot by Swiatek at the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun.
2024 has been the most successful season of Sabalenka’s career, with the world No 1 winning four titles – the most she has ever won in an individual year.
Sabalenka successfully defended her Australian Open title and then won her first US Open title in September, alongside winning WTA 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Wuhan.
She was also the runner-up in Madrid and Rome and managed to secure the year-end No 1 position despite being forced out of Wimbledon due to injury.
Read Next: The 9 best WTA Tour matches of 2024 – ranked! ft. Swiatek, Sabalenka
