Belarusian professional tennis player Aryna Sabalenka is a world top ten player, having won six WTA singles titles and three doubles titles.

Sabalenka’s father was a hockey player, and always encouraged her to play sports. He took her to play tennis one day, and from there her passion and skill grew. She started training at the National Tennis Academy in Minsk when it opened in 2014, and started competing both in junior competitions and at low level professional tournaments. Her first professional international match win was in Istanbul in 2014 and over the next two years she climbed the rankings to break into the world top 150. Sabalenka’s Grand Slam debut came in 2017, when she won her first WTA match at Wimbledon, and later that year she went on to win the biggest title of her career to date at the Mumbai Open. Her potential didn’t go unrecognised, and in 2018 she was awarded the title of WTA Newcomer of the Year, as well as reaching four WTA Tour finals. The following year she won three singles titles, including defending her Premier 5 title at the Wuhan Open and going on to win the WTA Elite trophy.

2019 saw Sabalenka enter the world top 10 for the first time, and she was awarded the WTA Elite trophy for the second year running. She also made it to world No. 2 in doubles, winning the Sunshine Double with her partner Elise Mertens.