Aryna Sabalenka is not having her best time on the court. In fact, it has been quite the opposite.

The World No. 1 has not lifted a trophy since late March, after sweeping Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back to complete the Sunshine Double.

Yet, as she steps onto the hard courts of New York to defend her US Open crown, Sabalenka is letting the outside chatter roll right off her shoulders.

"Pressure is just part of our lives. It doesn't matter if you're number one or [not]. It's important to focus on yourself, and that's what I'm doing, trying to focus on myself," Sabalenka told Serve, per Sports Illustrated's Megha Gupta.

For Sabalenka, that focus is important because she believes she made one change this season that did not help her game.

"This season, I focused a little bit on results, and I think that's been not really successful for me," she added.

It's not as if 2026 went badly for Sabalenka from the start. She opened the year by defending her Brisbane title in January, then reached the Australian Open final before losing to Elena Rybakina.

And by March, she was arguably playing the best tennis of her career.

Then it unraveled at the French Open in June. Sabalenka led Diana Shnaider by a set in the quarterfinals before dropping 12 of the last 13 games in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 collapse.

A month later, Naomi Osaka ended her Wimbledon bid in the fourth round, snapping a 21-match win streak in Grand Slam tiebreaks.

The hard-court summer offered no reset, either. Ekaterina Alexandrova beat her in three sets in the fourth round in Toronto. And less than two weeks before the US Open began, Sara Bejlek defeated her in straight sets in the fourth round of the Cincinnati Masters.

"From today, I want to focus on myself and really enjoying the battles, enjoy the fights. That's the best approach for me," Sabalenka confessed, owning her errors, before the U.S. Open.

Just one year ago, Sabalenka arrived in Flushing Meadows in a similar situation. She had spent the entire 2025 season ranked No. 1 without winning a major, losing painful finals to Madison Keys in Melbourne and Coco Gauff in Paris.

But she defeated Amanda Anisimova in the 2025 US Open final to lift her fourth Grand Slam trophy and secure back-to-back crowns in New York.

The questions around Sabalenka, however, have not been limited to tennis this year.

Sabalenka also faced criticism over her US Open outfit

Her Nike outfit for the 2026 US Open became a talking point before she even played her first singles match.

The design featured a black mesh, jersey-style top over a bright orange sports bra and matching shorts. Sabalenka wore the outfit while playing mixed doubles with Novak Djokovic at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Some fans criticized the design, while others compared it to a fishing net.

Sabalenka, however, did not seem interested in changing it because of the reaction.

"Who cares what people think?" she said during media day.

She also explained that Nike created a different sports theme for each Grand Slam this year. Surfing was used for the Australian Open, ballet for Roland Garros, cricket for Wimbledon, and basketball for New York.

Written by

Md Saife Fida