“Coming back, actually, everything feels like home,” Aryna Sabalenka said after finishing off her first match in the Wuhan Open with a victory over the 37th-ranked Katerina Siniakova. The two-time Wuhan Open champion Sabalenka has returned to the event after a four-year hiatus! And the US Open champion, who is “happy” to be back in Wuhan, now holds a stunning 13-0 W/L record there, showing her usual prowess in the event! And when a glimpse of her own skills caught her attention, she made a bold statement, displaying her unwavering self-assurance!

After wrapping up her 50th tour-level victory of the year against Siniakova, the World No. 2 came across WTA’s official Instagram post which was a clip of her latest match. The video revealed an outstanding back-to-back intense stretch of shots from both Sabalenka and Siniakova. To Siniakova’s credit, she made Sabalenka run a lot, but the Belarusian’s power came to the fore as she prevailed eventually and won the point.

Sabalenka, who won the match by 6-4, 6-4, took to her Instagram and shared the video (which had “On the stretch 😲,” written on it), with a caption that said, “Still got the skills 👯😂.”  Sabalenka’s unrelenting passion and confidence indeed showed in her match! Despite being tested by the Czech for one hour and 34 minutes, she broke Siniakova twice in each set, even after dropping one service game herself! 

Sabalenka, who will face Yulia Putintseva in the round-of-16 match, further stated after the match, “I missed Wuhan a lot. I just have really good memories of winning, two times, the title here. Just Wuhan brings me a lot of great memories, good vibes.” Sabalenka, who won two grand slams this year in Melbourne and New York respectively, didn’t win much during the clay court season, as the World No. 1 Iga Swiatek denied her a final-round victory in Madrid and Rome. Moreover, her personal battles (the death of her ex-partner) and her shoulder injury, which kept her from participating in the Olympics, further deepened her misery. 

But the 26-year-old bounced back and won the Cincinnati Masters and then her maiden US Open title later in the season! Naturally, as her confidence is growing, Sabalenka is eyeing another victory in Wuhan. Besides, she wants to continue with the same momentum in the Tour Finals as well to finish the season on a high.

Aryna Sabalenka opens up about her preparation for the upcoming WTA Finals

Last year, Swiatek crushed Aryna Sabalenka’s dream to qualify for the final round of the WTA Finals, defeating her by 3-6, 2-6. This year, Sabalenka, whose 15-match win streak ended in Beijing at the hands of Karolina Muchova (in QF), wants to leave no stone unturned in the WTA Finals! In an interview, the 26-year-old player said, “I think between Wuhan and the Finals is like a three-week gap.”

The two-time Australian Open champion continued, “It means if you don’t reach the last stages of the tournaments here, then you have a really bigger gap in between, which is not so good before going to the last tournament of the year where every match is a high-intensity match.”

Sabalenka emphasized the significance of doing “well” in Wuhan to be “better prepared” for the upcoming Tour Finals (November 2nd). She further highlighted that she wants to win “more matches” before the “last push” of the season.

Aryna Sabalenka goes into her Round of 16 match against Putintseva in Wuhan as the firm favorite, but she wouldn’t want to take her opponent lightly at all, as Putintseva was the one who defeated her in the 2019 US Open second round. Do you think Putintseva can replicate that performance again, against all odds? Let us know in the comments below.