Aryna Sabalenka - Overrated?

[tennnisfanatic]

I'm watching the WTA Finals. I know, shame on me right? At least according to all the male chauvinists here.

Anyway Aryna lost the first set to Rybakina. She obviously can come back and win the match. But it won't change the fact she lost so many matches late in grand slams often in crushing and humiliating fashion where she was the favorite going into the tournament.

But watching Aryna get schooled out there got me thinking about the conversation we were having about Sinner and his dominance. Where his results just don't show dominance as he is always getting schooled by Carlos.

I've heard the same type of thing about Aryna recently. Roddick even mentioned something about it on his podcast and I'm just not seeing it.

For Aryna it's even worse. At least Sinner has won two slams in 2025 and made all four finals. And he has a good shot at winning the ATP Finals 2025.

For Aryna I can think of at least 5 or 6 major events where she went into the tournament as a pretty big favored and sh*t the bed VERY badly.

If anything Aryna at least to me Aryna has been more of a choke artist and shown a very weak mentality than any type of true dominance.

By the way this isn't about Rybakina dominance as she obviously don't have the results but no doubt she is a more talented player than Sabalenka. I'm not sure why she hasn't been able to get better results.

Back to more question. How can Sabalenka be considered dominant when she lose more big matches than she win? It doesn't make sense.

 

[ibbi]

She can be considered dominant because she goes deep in WTA events with a frequency like nobody else for years. I think you have to go back to Serena for someone who was consistently good for this long.

For the last 3 years she has only once failed to make the SF at a slam. It is easy to take that for granted when we look at the mens game for the past 20 years, but that is dominance. Being dominant is not just about winning finals, it is about winning day in and day out, whoever you play, wherever you play.

She has tightened up a whole bunch of times once she gets to the final 4/final 2, but that is still better than not getting there at all.

 

[AnOctorokForDinner]

Fun fact: Sable hasn't lost a straight-set match in GS in five years (since USO '20), so she's not getting dominated when playing well, but other top players can and do often outplay and outclutch her on the big stage, that's true.

 

[tennnisfanatic]

Lol. So let me get this straight. I remember the talk all year was how good Sabalenka was in tiebreaks. She had won what seem like a million in a row. Then when she needed to win the tiebreak to stay in the match at the WTA Finals to win a title she's never won before she played just about the worst tiebreak I've ever seen anybody play. Didn't win a single point.

This is exactly what I was saying and thinking in my original post. How do you with that serve not win a single point on it? Insane, crazy choke job.

If this was my first time watching Aryna & Rybakina I would of thought Rybakina was the 4 time grand slam champion.

Maybe we should Rybakina in against Kyrgios because she just manhandled Sabalenka. Overpowered her. Elena has so much power and her technique and strokes are so clean and pure especially the serve.