Now that She’s Won a Slam, Becoming No.1 is Aryna Sabalenka’s Top Priority

“It’s my first priority I would say – I really want it,” she said.

Never mind that Iga Swiatek and her invincible air are currently 4800 points clear of No.2 Sabalenka in the WTA rankings. The bigger challenge the better says the Belarusian.

“It’s going to be really tough and that’s why I really want to achieve it, because it seems like impossible but I want to make it possible,” she said.

Sabalenka will begin that quest this week in Dubai where she is slated to face American Lauren Davis in the second round.

Expectations, naturally, will be high, but Sabalenka prefers to focus on herself and her game. She believes if she controls the controllables she’ll have more success.

“I would like to just focus on myself because I think the only thing why I won Australian Open is because I was focusing on myself,” she said. “I didn’t really think about all the expectations, all the things happening around, this is Grand Slam, all this stuff. I was just focusing on myself. I just keep telling myself that I have to bring my level on court, I have a lot of chances to win the match.

“So, yeah, I’ll just try focus on myself.”