In the bitter aftermath of her straight-sets defeat by Elena Rybakina at the WTA Finals last November, an inconsolable Aryna Sabalenka walked over to her courtside player box and slumped into a chair. She had been completely overpowered by her opponent, a strange and unusual feeling for such a powerful player, and she was seething. Sabalenka eventually settled on a popular Russian idiom to explain Rybakina’s untouchable form, which she believed was fortunately timed: “Once a year, even a stick shoots,” she said.
That stick, it turns out, has spent the past year shooting straight at Sabalenka in every significant match. Rybakina’s performance in Riyadh was a clear warning and she has dominated the hard‑court grand slam tournaments this year, beating Sabalenka in the Australian Open and US Open finals.
