Martina Navratilova makes Aryna Sabalenka ranking and Wimbledon claim after US Open title run

Martina Navratilova believes Aryna Sabalenka should be able to catch up with Iga Swiatek in the battle for the No 1 spot in the WTA Rankings while she also made a bold prediction about the Belarusian being “one of the favourites at Wimbledon”.

After falling at the final hurdle in 2023 when she lost the US Open final against Coco Gauff, Sabalenka went all the way this year as she beat Jessica Pegula in straight sets in the showpiece match at Arthur Ashe Stadium to win her third Grand Slam.

Despite her title run, Sabalenka will remain at No 2 in the rankings behind Swiatek – who has been No 1 since November last year – despite picking up 2,000 points at Flushing Meadows. The gap, though, has been reduced to 2,169 points.

The good news for the 26-year-old is the fact that her Polish rival has a lot more points to defend in the last few months of the season as she won the China Open and WTA Finals in 2023.
Tennis great Navratilova believes the battle for the No 1 ranking will go down to the wire.
“She’s the best hard-court player and she’s catching up to Iga Swiatek on the rankings so we’ll see who ends up as world No 1 at the end of the year,” she told Sky Sports Tennis.
“I think mathematically it’s still possible for Sabalenka to get there by the end of the year and so she should because she’s won two majors.”
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Having won the Australian Open at the start of the year, Sabalenka is one of only five women to win the two hard-court Slams in the same year with Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf the others to achieve the feat.

There is no doubt she is now the best player on hard courts as she is 27-1 in her last four Slams on the surface with that defeat coming against Gauff in New York last year.
But it is not just on hard courts where she has excelled as she reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon as well.
Navratilova believes Sabalenka should challenge for the titles at Wimbledon and Roland Garros as she is “a threat” everywhere.
The 18-time Grand Slam singles champion continued: “The sky’s the limit for her. She should be one of the favourites at Wimbledon and she knows how to play on the clay as well, so she’s a threat on any surface right now.”
The rest of the WTA Tour should be worried as Sabalenka has improved several aspects of her game.
“I feel as though she has improved every aspect of her game, incrementally and as a whole,” Navratilova said.

I think she can improve her transition game and come to the net more. She’s so big at the net so it’s hard to go through her. You can’t go over her, so I would like to see that transition.
“The slice backhand is where she can improve the most, come in on that, particularly on the grass. If she adds that variety to her game and work on the drop shot then yep.”