Aryna Sabalenka needed 62 minutes to win her first match since losing the US Open final, and barely two of them to admit the problem she has not solved. The world number two beat Mexico’s Renata Zarazua 6-1 6-3 in her opening match at the China Open on Thursday, striking 36 winners — two more than the total number of points Zarazua won — and firing 11 aces without facing a single break point. Then she was asked about the voice in her own head.
“I think this is a good and a bad side of my personality, that I always ask and wait for more from myself,” the 28-year-old Belarusian said. “Sometimes it can drive me forward, but sometimes it can really drain my energy. Maybe this is something I have to finally learn. I’m really trying so hard sometimes to be easier on myself.”
A performance that gave her nothing to complain about
On the evidence of Beijing’s hard courts, there was little to be hard on. Sabalenka won 22 of 25 points behind her first serve — 88 per cent — and 10 of 14 behind her second. Zarazua, a 28-year-old qualifier-turned-regular who has built a career on retrieval rather than power, never found a return game to live in. Sabalenka broke in the opening game of each set and improved to 2-0 against the Mexican at tour level, having beaten her in Brisbane last year on the way to the title.
“I’m definitely happy with the level I played at. Not much to complain about,” Sabalenka said. “Happy with the focus, happy physically and with the performance.”
That combination — total control on court, qualified satisfaction off it — has defined her season. The numbers are excellent by any standard other than her own:
- 46-9 for the year, a win rate of 84 per cent
- Three titles: Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami
- The fifth woman in history to complete the Sunshine Double
- Eight consecutive hard-court major finals — a run no player, male or female, had managed before
- No Grand Slam title for the first season since 2022
What September cost her
The last line is the one that stings. Sabalenka reached the Australian Open final and lost to Elena Rybakina. She reached the US Open final and lost to Elena Rybakina. In between came a quarter-final exit in Paris to Diana Shnaider and a fourth-round defeat at Wimbledon by Naomi Osaka. Flushing Meadows took both the title she had defended since 2025 and the ranking she had held for 99 consecutive weeks, and handed them to the same opponent.
Rybakina arrived in Beijing as the top seed and world number one for the first time in her career. Sabalenka arrived a seed below her, which is the precise context for the self-compassion project. A player who reaches two major finals and wins the Sunshine Double in a calendar year has had a season most of the tour would trade for; a player who has made eight straight hard-court major finals and converted the last two into runner-up trophies is dealing with something closer to grief.
Self-criticism has always been the fuel and the fault line. The racquet-smashing, the towel over the head, the long conversations with her own box — all of it has coexisted with four Grand Slam titles. The question she is now asking publicly is whether the same engine still works at 28 as it did at 24.
Beijing is the one that got away
There is an unusual gap in Sabalenka’s résumé here. For a player who wins relentlessly in China — a career win rate of 82.7 per cent in the country, built largely on her Wuhan dominance — the China Open has stayed stubbornly shut. She is 8-4 in Beijing with three quarter-finals, in 2018, 2023 and 2024, and withdrew from last year’s edition with a minor injury. The 2024 run ended against Karolina Muchova in three sets.
The incentive is more than sentimental. Roughly 1,000 points separate Sabalenka and Rybakina in the race standings, and the China Open champion earns exactly 1,000 — meaning the second-to-last WTA 1000 of the season is a straight referendum on who goes to the WTA Finals as the player to beat. Sabalenka cannot pass Rybakina here without help, but she can erase the cushion.
Next is Nikola Bartunkova, the 20-year-old Czech seeded 26th, who dispatched Magdalena Frech 6-2 6-2 on Friday and plays Sabalenka in the third round on Sunday. Their only previous meeting was in the Berlin quarter-finals earlier this season, where Sabalenka trailed 6-2 4-0 before turning it around — the kind of match that rewards a player who refuses to let herself off the hook. Learning when to be easier on herself, and when not to be, may be the last technical adjustment left.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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