Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka’s serve is daunting. At the 2024 US Open, her average forehand top spin speed was a blistering 129 km/h, enough to get past the present “Big Three” of Carlos Alcaraz (127 km/h), Jannik Sinner (126 km/h) and Novak Djokovic (122 km/h). After blowing out her opponents with the racket, now she is also flexing her financial muscles as well as she edged past all of them on the earnings list for the year.

Despite racking up titles throughout the year, including lifting her maiden US Open, Sabalenka could not make her mark in the WTA finals and had to bow out to a surging Coco Gauff in the semifinals. But seems like she avenged the loss while getting past Coco with a small margin on the earnings list.

According to the data shared by Tennis Majors, Sabalenka has garnered a total of $9.729 million throughout the year as she topped the list of 50 WTA players who have won more than $ 1 Million this year. In achieving this feat, she not only outshined Coco but also Swiatek, who also witnessed an equally interesting season. 

Coco Gauff clinched the WTA Finals this month which helped her bag a whopping $4.805 Million, the largest paycheck in women’s tennis history. Besides, she also earned a good amount of money from her title win at the ASB Classic ($35,250) and the China Open ($1100000). However, she narrowly fell short of Sabalenka and won a total of $9.353 million. Meanwhile, Iga Switek got the reflection of her long absence from the court since the US Open.

Iga, who topped the list in 2022 and 2023 declined to the third spot and managed to earn $8.5 Million. They were followed by Jasmine Paolini and Qinwen Zheng, who earned $5.82 million and $5.559 Million, respectively. Coming back to Aryna Sabalenka, her wealth can be attributed to the four titles she clinched this season. 

The Belarusian star emerged victorious in two Grand Slams at the Australian Open (prize money $2,130,975) and the US Open (prize money $3600000,) which accounted for a majority of her earnings. Besides, she also emerged victorious at the Cincinnati Masters and the Wuhan Open, which further boosted her financial status. But besides their hefty earnings, Coco and Sabalenka have also learned more about their own faults and shortcomings as they had pointed out. 

Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff have become better versions of themselves

Aryna Sabalenka fell short of winning the WTA Finals this year and lost to Coco Gauff in the semi-finals. But she seems to be more than happy as she will end the year as the World No. 1 player. Looking back at her previous self, Sabalenka believes that she has made some remarkable progress over the years, and the pride was evident in her words at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. 

Speaking about her No. 1 ranking, Sabalenka said, “I think I have better understanding of my game, of my weapons and how to manage my emotions.” Continuing further, she added, “If I compare myself to two years back, or like five years ago, it’s completely two different players.” This confidence comes from her dominance that she has depicted throughout the season winning 56 of 70 matches she has played. On the other hand, Coco had her improvements too.

Throughout the season, she has battled the problem of double faults. In Wuhan, Gauff took Sabalenka to three sets despite a career-high 21 double faults. Sabalenka edged her out in the end, winning 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 But the 20-year-old knew that the outcomes could have been different had she minimized her serving errors. She applied the learnings in the WTA finals.

Coco broke her 4-4 tie with Sabalenka with a remarkable display from the service line and daunting work from the baseline. She deployed her forehand to beat Sabalenka with pace while using her speed to extend points.

“I knew I had worked hard on my serve since [Wuhan]. That was 21 free points that I gave. I knew if I could cut that in half, I would give myself a better chance and obviously I did well over that today. Obviously she’s a great player, but I just felt like if I can just play well and serve well, I had a good chance. And once, you know, I stepped on the court and realized I was feeling my serve, I just kind of had that belief that I can win,” Coco had said after the victory

With the next season soon entering the picture, it would be fascinating to see if Sabalenka and Coco can continue their momentum and continue to outshine their opponents to win more accolades.