Absence of dominant players like Serena Williams and Steffi Graf on women's tour now is a "positive thing", believes Aryna Sabalenka
Although Aryna Sabalenka wishes that today's women's players could be as dominant as Serena Williams and Steffi Graf were, she is also glad that the competition is cut-throat, where anyone can beat anyone.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams spent a total of 319 weeks at the top of the WTA rankings and 18-time Grand Slam winner Graf shares the record with Novak Djokovic at 377 weeks.
Williams and Graf also spent 186 consecutive weeks each as the World No. 1, the highest among women. Both players were ridiculously dominant forces on the WTA tour at the peak of their powers.
Sabalenka comfortably won her second-round match (6-0, 6-1) against Lauren Davis at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. In a press conference, she was asked if she was happy with the fact that unlike in Williams and Graf's era, a particular player was not dominating everyone today.
The 24-year-old remarked that the quality of tennis had improved significantly, making it possible for any player to beat anyone today.
"I think tennis improved a lot, like, everyone improved a lot. Everyone started working with their own fitness coach, trainer, tennis coach, hitting partner," Aryna Sabalenka said. "Right now, it's never easy matches. If you play somewhere far in the hundred or somewhere like in the top 20, it's not that much. Everyone can beat everyone. That's why it's a little bit tougher right now. That's why top players struggling a lot with that."
The Belarusian thinks the absence of total dominance from one or two players is a positive thing as everyone has to improve their performances constantly.
"Like from the beginning of the tournament, you have to be really focused and you have to bring your best tennis. So you're spending a lot of energy. Then at the end, it's tougher to play. So I really think it's a positive thing. It helps us to improve more. Yeah, that's definitely positive thing. But I wish we would dominate like they used to, you know," she added.
Aryna Sabalenka to face Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai Tennis Championships R3
Aryna Sabalenka is off to a great start at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. She outperformed lucky loser Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-1 with five breaks of serve in the second round and will take on 20th-ranked Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the third round tomorrow.
This will be the second meeting between the two players; Sabalenka beat Ostapenko 6-1, 6-2 at the 2019 Zhengzhou Open.
In her first two matches of the ongoing tournament, the 25-year-old Latvian beat Katarina Zavatska 6-1, 6-4 and Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 6-0.