Will Aryna Sabalenka achieve a rare three-pear at Australian Open 2025?
Aryna Sabalenka is on her way to becoming the first three-time Australian Open winner this century.
Aryna Sabalenka will enter the Australian Open 2025 as defending champion. If Sabalenka wins the crown for the third time in Melbourne, she will become the first woman to do so in the WTA since the beginning of the 21st century. Compatriot Victoria Azarenka came close to achieving the feat (2012, 2013), as did Serena Williams (2009, 2010).
Jennifer Capriati, too, came close to achieving the goal with back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002. The last player to do it was Martina Hingis, who won three Australian Open titles between 1997 and 1999.
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Aryna Sabalenka notched up her 41st win in Australia after her victory over Polina Kudermetova. The World No. 1 rallied to defeat Kudermetova from a set down, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to lift the 2025 Brisbane International trophy. The Belarusian is 27-1 in the continent after winning the Brisbane Open final since the start of 2023. It was her third final in as many years and her second victory at the WTA 500 event.
The only loss was to Elena Rybakina in the Brisbane International in 2024, 6-0, 6-3. During the same span, she is 52-3 in sets in Australia. The three sets lost were also against Rybakina, two in the 2024 Brisbane final and the first set of the 2023 Australian Open final.
As it now stands, the World No. 1 is on course to claim her third straight Australian Open Grand Slam title. Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek are the most likely contenders in Sabalenka’s path to sporting history in Melbourne. In an exceptional 2024 season, Sabalenka lifted the trophies at Grand Slam venues in New York and Melbourne, along with claiming the year-end WTA No. 1 ranking for the first time.
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Between the two of them, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka have swept the hard-court Grand Slams. Gauff won the 2023 US Open, Sabalenka won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024 and the US Open in 2024.
The American defeated Sabalenka in Flushing Meadows in the 2023 final. Sabalenka gained sweet revenge in the Australian Open semi-final in 2024. Gauff stopped Sabalenka in her tracks at the WTA Finals last four to prevent the Belarusian from taking a 3-0 clean sweep in their meetings last season.
Against Swiatek, Sabalenka is locked in a World No. 1 vs. No. 2 rivalry in women’s tennis. In 2023, Sabalenka overcame Swiatek on clay, her favourite surface, in Madrid and very nearly repeated the feat in 2024 in the same venue.
While Swiatek enjoys an undisputed lead over Sabalenka on clay at 5-1, they are an even 3-3 on hard courts. Their last meeting at a Grand Slam was the last four at the 2022 US Open, where Iga rallied from a set down to win. That remains the Polish player’s sole major on hard courts.
Since then, Sabalenka has worked on her serve and temperament. Her sheer power makes her more than a handful on hard courts, as seen in her 6-3, 6-3 win over Swiatek in Cincinnati a few months ago.
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