Is Aryna Sabalenka missing her long-time rival, Iga Swiatek? Well, the Belarusian superstar is currently in China taking part in the Wuhan Open. She has played some outstanding tennis this season and has already clinched two Grand Slam titles in the 2024 season. With the help of her incredible run, she has now become a real contender to finish the year as the world number one, but what about Swiatek? Well, Iga Swiatek was last seen in action at the US Open. After that, she withdrew her name from multiple tournaments, citing various reasons. Her withdrawal from the Asian swing has now opened the door for Sabalenka. What does she think about Swiatek’s absence?

Swiatek has been weathering quite a few storms in the last few months. Recently, she announced that she has parted ways with her long-time coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski. While making this announcement she also claimed, “Due to this important change on my team, I give myself a couple of weeks to start a cooperation with a new coach.” As per several reports, by the end of this week, we may get to know the name of the new coach in Iga Swiatek’s team. It has been almost 35 days since we last saw her in action. Literally, every tennis lover is missing Swiatek right now.

During a recent press conference in Wuhan, Aryna Sabalenka was asked if she missed her fierce competitor in the last few tournaments. In reply, she said, “I mean, I love having this competition and I love seeing her in the draw. Yeah, I love to, like, get to the finals and face her in the finals. It’s always great battles. I always enjoy fights against her.” Sabalenka further added, “But, I mean, I hope she’ll figure out the coach situation and she’ll be back in the Finals in her best shape. Hopefully, we can play against each other there in the Finals, yeah, put it into a fight for world No. 1. That’s ideally.“

Iga Swiatek is currently sitting at the top spot of the women’s singles ranking with 9,785 points, while Aryna Sabalenka is in second place with 8,716 points. Now if we take a look at the Live WTA Race points, then we can see that there isn’t much gap between the two. Swiatek has 8,285 points whereas, Sabalenka breathes down her neck with 8,091 points. This will surely go down to the wires! Speaking about goals in this season, Sabalenka added, “I’m trying to focus on myself and make sure that I play my best tennis and make sure I still have this opportunity to become world No. 1 at the end of the year.“

Aryna Sabalenka missed a great chance to close the gap further with Iga Swiatek at the China Open. She was defeated by Karolina Muchova in the QF in Beijing. However, at Wuhan, she can get a second bite at the cherry if she manages to become the first-ever three-time winner of this tournament. So, fasten your seatbelts to witness some real nail-biting moments featuring these two rivals of women’s tennis! Talking about their rivalry, well, this isn’t the first time though that we are witnessing them sharing some love and care for each other!

Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek reveal how they motivate each other in their journeys

Both Sabalenka and Swiatek have taken women’s tennis to new heights with the help of their incredible achievements in the last few years. Iga Swiatek is just 23 years old, and she has already won 5 Grand Slam titles in her career. On the other hand, Aryna Sabalenka (26) has won 3 Grand Slam titles so far in her career. Interestingly, both these players feel that their rivalry has been key to their individual success. Much like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal?

Well, these two women have literally dominated women’s tennis over the past year and have spent most of their time occupying the top two seats in the WTA. So far, they have met each other 12 times now and Swiatek currently leads the H2H against Sabalenka by an 8-4 margin. Speaking about this incredible rivalry during a previous interview, Swiatek said, “For sure when we play against each other, I feel like it’s a challenge. I think it’s also pushing me to become better and better player, so I think we both kind of need each other to grow.”

Even Sabalenka shared the same thought with the current world number one! According to Sabalenka, “I think that’s amazing the rivalry we are having with Iga. She definitely motivates me a lot to get better, and I think I improve so many things just because of her. She kind of like pointed out the things I wasn’t good at and motivated me to get better at.“ Can this rivalry ever reach the levels of Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal, Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova, or some other popular rivalries in the tennis world?

Iga Swiatek gave this answer. She clarified, “We’ll see about if it’s going to go to history books because honestly, I don’t think either I or Aryna are focusing on that.” Share your thoughts on this camaraderie in between fierce rivalry between the two.