MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Factbox on Australian Open finalist Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion, who beat American fourth seed Coco Gauff 7-6(2) 6-4 in the semi-finals (Prefix numbers denote seeding).
ARYNA SABALENKA
Age: 25
Nation: Belarus
WTA Ranking: 2
Seeding: 2
Grand Slam titles: 1 (Australian Open 2023)
ROAD TO FINAL
First round: beat Ella Seidel (Germany) 6-0 6-1
Second round: beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-2
Third round: beat 28-Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-0 6-0
Fourth round: beat Amanda Anisimova (U.S.) 6-3 6-2
Quarter-finals: beat 9-Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic)6-2 6-3
Semi-finals: beat 4-Coco Gauff (U.S.) 7-6(2) 6-4
EARLY LIFE
* Born in Minsk. Began playing tennis at age six.
CAREER TO DATE
* Began her professional career playing on the ITF Circuit in 2012.
* Won three singles titles and one doubles title on ITF Circuit in 2015.
* Played first WTA qualifying event at Rabat in 2016 and played in her first WTA main draw at Dubai the following year. Ended 2017 ranked number 78 for first top-100 finish.
* Won two WTA titles at New Haven and Wuhan in 2018. First Top-20 season finishing ranked 11th.
* Won three WTA singles titles and three doubles titles in 2019, including first Grand Slam doubles title at the U.S. Open with Belgian partner Elise Mertens.
* Won Doha, Ostrava and Linz titles for a joint Tour-leading record in 2020. Climbed one place in the rankings for her first Top-10 season.
* Won Abu Dhabi and Madrid in 2021 and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
* Reached the 2022 U.S. Open semi-finals. Qualified for the WTA Finals for the second consecutive year where she defeated the top 3 players of the tournament — Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Iga Swiatek — and finished runner-up losing to Caroline Garcia.
* Won the Australian Open beating Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) and reached Wimbledon and French Open semi-finals, finished runner-up at the U.S. Open in 2023 after defeat by Gauff. Also won titles in Adelaide and Madrid.
* Reached career high ranking of number one in September, 2023.
(Compiled by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
