Aryna Sabalenka is ready to go in Australia as the world No. 1 is feeling “hungry” and targeting to kick off her year with back-to-back titles at the Brisbane International and Australian Open.
In the last two years, the Belarusian was an absolutely dominant force Down Under – in 2023, she went 11-0 to win the Aldeiade International and the Australian Open while in early 2024 she posted a 11-1 record after finishing as runner-up in Brisbane and successfully defending her title at Melbourne Park.
Heading into the 2025 Australian summer, Sabalenka is again considered one of the top favorites to enjoy big success.
“I feel fresh and ready to go. I love Australia and I always come here hungry and always come here ready. Ready as good as possible,” the 26-year-old said.
Aryna Sabalenka© Brisbane International/Instagram – Fair Use
Sabalenka hopes to make amends for a brutal 2024 Brisbane final loss
In her first tournament of 2024, the world No. 1 easily made the Brisbane final but then Elena Rybakina annihilated her 6-0 6-3.
This year, the Kazakh won’t be defending her title but there will be a couple of other top-10 players – Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro and Daria Kasatkina.
“I have a lot of great memories from here and just can’t wait to start playing. Not the result I wanted at the end, but I’ll try my best this year,” Sabalenka noted.
While the Belarusian is hoping to kick off her season with a title, she also wants to use her first tournament of the year to test some things and see if she needs to make some changes ahead of the Australian Open.
“You work hard on lots of things in the pre-season. The first tournament before the major tournament is the one where you can try it out and see what’s going to work well for you, and what’s not,” Sabalenka said.
Tennis World USA