Yearly summary
Early hard court season
Sabalenka entered Adelaide 1 as the second seed. She reached her first final of the season by defeating Liudmila Samsonova, [1] Markéta Vondroušová, Irina-Camelia Begu en route. [4] Then, she defeated Czech teenage qualifier Linda Nosková to win her first title since Madrid 2021 and her 11th career title without dropping a set all week. [5]
Sabalenka entered the Australian Open as the fifth seed. She defeated Tereza Martincová, Shelby Rogers, former doubles partner and 26th seed Elise Mertens, [6] and the previous week's Adelaide 2 champion and world no. 10 Belinda Bencic [7] to reach her first-ever Australian Open quarterfinal. She then beat Donna Vekić to reached her fourth Grand Slam semifinal, [8] and won her tenth consecutive match by beating Magda Linette to make her first ever major final. [9] [10] In the final, she defeated reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in three sets to win her first major title. [11] [12] She became the second Belarusian to ever win a major singles title, and the first since Victoria Azarenka, a decade ago. [13] [14] [15] [16] After winning the title in Melbourne, Sabalenka rose back to No. 2 in the WTA rankings.
In Dubai, Sabalenka defeated Lauren Davis [17] and Jeļena Ostapenko to reach the quarterfinals, where she fell to the eventual champion Barbora Krejčíková in three sets. [18] She then participated in Indian Wells, where she defeated Evgeniya Rodina [19] and took revenge from Barbora Krejčíková for her last defeat in three sets. [20] Then she beat Coco Gauff [21] and Maria Sakkari to reach her first Indian Wells final, [22] where she lost to Elena Rybakina in a rematch of the 2023 Australian Open final. [23] In Miami, Sabalenka defeated Shelby Rogers, Marie Bouzková, and Barbora Krejčíková each in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals, where she was defeated by Sorana Cîrstea.
Early clay court season
Sabalenka started her clay court season in Stuttgart, where she defeated Barbora Krejčíková, Paula Badosa, and Anastasia Potapova to reach her fourth final of the year. In the final, which was a rematch of last year's final, she was defeated by world No. 1 Iga Świątek in straight sets for the second consecutive year. In Madrid, Sabalenka reached her second final at this tournament, defeating Sorana Cîrstea, Camila Osorio, Mirra Andreeva, Mayar Sherif, and Maria Sakkari, dropping just one set en route to the final. In the final, she would once again face Iga Świątek, and would win her third title of the year in three sets.
In Rome, Sabalenka would suffer her first early defeat of the year, losing in straight sets to former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin. At the French Open, she would reach the semifinals without dropping a set, defeating Marta Kostyuk, Iryna Shymanovich, Kamilla Rakhimova, Sloane Stephens, and Elina Svitolina. In the semifinals, she would face Karolína Muchová. Sabalenka lost this match in three sets, despite leading 5–2 and holding match point. [24]
North American hard court season
Her next tournament would be Montréal, where she would defeat Petra Martić, before losing in three sets to eventual runner-up Liudmila Samsonova. She next reached the semifinals in Cincinnati, defeating Ann Li, Daria Kasatkina, and Ons Jabeur, before falling once again in three sets to Karolína Muchová.
At the US Open, Sabalenka would reach the semifinals by defeating Maryna Zanevska, Jodie Burrage, Clara Burel, Daria Kasatkina, and Zheng Qinwen in straight sets, dropping just 21 games in all five matches. Following these wins, Sabalenka became the first player since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events in one year. She faced Madison Keys in the semifinals, recovering from a set and break deficit and serving to stay in the match four times in the final two sets. In her second major final of the year, Sabalenka faced Coco Gauff, and would lose in three sets. Due to the loss of world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the fourth round, Sabalenka became the world No. 1 tennis player at the conclusion of the tournament. Sabalenka became the 29th player to be ranked No. 1 in the world on the WTA Tour, and the second Belarusian, after Victoria Azarenka. She was also just the eighth female player to have been ranked No. 1 in the Open Era in both singles and doubles at some point in their careers. [25] [b] With Sabalenka reaching the final, she became the first woman since Serena Williams to reach the semifinals or better at all four majors in a season since 2016. [26]
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Belarus [a] 
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