NEW YORK — Scroll Aryna Sabalenka’s Instagram and you’d swear this was the best stretch of her life.
Designer dresses on rooftops. Sun-soaked beaches and bikinis. Glamour shoots, vacations in Greece with her fiancé, a life lived loudly and unapologetically.
Step onto a tennis court with her right now, though, and the picture changes fast.
The world No. 1 hasn’t been beyond the fourth round in her last few events. The woman who once bulldozed hard-court draws now looks stuck in neutral, searching for rhythm and results as the U.S. Open looms — and with it, the chance to become the first woman since Serena Williams (2012-14) to win three straight titles in New York.
Sabalenka doesn’t sound remotely interested in playing the part of a worried champion.
“Maybe there’s something wrong with people,” she shot back when asked what’s wrong with her game.
The same edge came out when the subject turned to her polarizing black, mesh-covered outfit in New York.
“Who cares about people, right? All matters for me is that I love it,” she said.
This is Sabalenka in 2026: scrutinized, challenged, and still swinging — verbally and physically.
From early surge to summer slide
The year started like it might belong on a career highlight reel.
Sabalenka reached the Australian Open final, falling to Elena Rybakina, then ripped through the Sunshine Double with back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami. On hard courts, where her power game can feel almost unfair, she looked set for a dominant season.
Even her fourth-round exit to Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon felt like a blip, not a warning sign. The assumption across the locker room and beyond was simple: get her back on North American hard courts and the old Sabalenka would reappear.
Instead, the cracks widened.
She was knocked out in the fourth round in Toronto by Ekaterina Alexandrova. Then came Cincinnati, where she built leads in both sets against Sara Bejlek and still lost, frustration spilling out in familiar ways — the kind that once defined her more than the trophies did.
Sabalenka won’t reveal exactly what’s been going on behind the scenes, but she doesn’t pretend it was business as usual.
“It wasn’t the best period. I don’t want to defend myself, but obviously I just don’t want to talk about that period. I’ve been dealing with several things,” she said.
There was no softening of the message that followed.
“Yeah, I didn’t perform my best. These tough lessons are definitely going to make me way, way stronger and working even harder. I work on my mental side of the game. I was trying to reset my mind and to come back stronger, so it’s only going to make me stronger. It’s only a matter of time for me to come back.”
The words sound like a promise. Or a warning.
New York, the scene of her rise
If there is a place for a reset, it is here.
Sabalenka claimed her first U.S. Open title in 2024, beating Jessica Pegula in the final, then backed it up last year by defeating Amanda Anisimova to defend the crown. The courts suit her game, the noise suits her personality, and the city has become the stage for her most convincing arguments as a champion.
Now the stakes are higher. The No. 1 ranking that once looked locked in has started to wobble. Rybakina is closing. Pegula is closing. A shallow run in New York would invite a real threat to her status at the top.
Sabalenka knows the math. She’s lived the pressure.
The spotlight, the social feeds, and the noise
Being No. 1 has brought more than trophies. It has delivered endorsements, photo shoots, and the kind of off-court life that fills a feed and fuels a narrative.
Critics scroll through her posts — the beaches, the fashion, the laughter — and draw a straight line: too much fun, not enough work.
Paula Badosa, a close friend who appears in plenty of those photos, doesn’t buy that storyline for a second.
“She’s still No. 1 in the world. So I think the results are there,” Badosa said.
“Of course, everyone is going to expect for her to win every tournament. That’s very, very difficult. And at the moment, that one player is not winning what they expected. Of course, they’re saying that it’s because of the photo shoots or the TikToks and all this stuff, and I’m not going to lie, she’s been doing that since she was maybe out of the top 100. And when she was winning, nobody says anything, you know? And when she loses a couple of matches, it’s because of that. I think it’s none of it.”
The criticism doesn’t seem to move Sabalenka much either. If anything, it hardens her stance. She has always played on emotion, but she now talks like a player trying to turn that emotion into armor.
“Well, that’s the beauty of the sport,” she said. “Throw tough challenges at me, I will come back only stronger.”
So the scene is set: a defending champion, a wobbling No. 1, a summer of questions, and a city that doesn’t do quiet.
If Sabalenka is right, if this really is only “a matter of time,” New York is about to find out exactly how much stronger she can get.
