Despite Heart-Break, Aryna Sabalenka’s Strong Words on Iga Swiatek Rivalry Affirms Her Desire to Be the Best

Reigning Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka’s rivalry with Iga Swiatek is again making headlines as she wants to “see many more finals against her (Iga).” Well, the 26-year-old’s firm personality is not unknown! Despite losing her former boyfriend to suicide, Sabalenka offered great courage in performing at the Miami Open. With such an indomitable spirit, no wonder that she will “increase the level every year” while, on the other hand, Swiatek is proud of herself for presenting a “pretty special” on-court performance.

However, despite showing positive signs, Aryna Sabalenka lost the Madrid Open final to Swiatek in 7-5 4-6 7-6(7), fuelling their long on-court rivalry. While fans expected the Belarusian tennis star to get sad, Sabalenka surprised the fraternity by showing a positive and confident attitude.

Aryna Sabalenka hopes to “see more wins than losses” in her future matches against Iga Swiatek

A reliable tennis fan recently shared Aryna Sabalenka’s comments after her defeat against Polish WTA star Iga Swiatek. Revealing the statement on their X (formerly Twitter), this source added- “ I really want to see many more finals against her (Iga). I wanna see more wins than losses But I really hope that we’ll be able to increase the level every year. I’m really happy to be one of these Big 3 as you call us. It’s really motivating me a lot to keep working.” Sabalenka’s statement surprised her fans since she expressed a positive outlook about her recent match against Swiatek despite her loss.

In this match of three hours and eleven minutes, these top-ranked WTA stars mesmerized the audience with their intense performance. While Sabalenka expressed how playing against Swiatek motivates her, the world’s number one WTA star echoed Sabalenka’s words to praise the Belarusian. Swiatek said post-victory- “It is always a challenge playing against you Aryna, so thanks for motivating me and forcing me to be a better player, I want to thank my team. I’ve had pretty nice speeches before so I don’t know what else to say to make it feel special. But I think what you saw on court was pretty special anyway.” 

After bagging her career’s 2oth tour title, Iga Swiatek became the youngest player after Caroline Wozniacki to reach 20 titles. Nevertheless, this on-court rivalry between Sabalenka and Swiatek reminded fans of two iconic WTA stars of tennis.

Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka’s rivalry brought fans the old Martina Navratilova vs Chris Evert vibes

Polish WTA star Iga Swiatek has met Aryna Sabalenka a total of ten times on the court to date. Among those ten times, this was their third clay court challenge against each other. Last year, the duo played both the Stuttgart Open and Madrid Open. However, Swiatek defeated the Belarusian Grand Slam winner both times. Now that Swiatek again defeated Sabalenka, it brought fans the memories of the old Navratilova vs Chris Evert rivalry.

Navratilova and Evert played against each other eighty times between 1973 to 1988 with sixty times in the tour finals. Sabalenka and Swiatek’s intense on-court battle reminded fans of the nerve-wracking matches between Navratilova and Evert following the Belarusian and Polish WTA player’s skills and brilliance.

Nevertheless, Aryna Sabalenka’s wise words about her rivalry with Iga Swiatek represent the reigning Australian Open winner’s hunger to improve and win more titles. If Sabalenka holds onto this positivity, son she will be unbeatable in professional tours.