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With her win over World No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals of the WTA Finals on Sunday, Aryna Sabalenka has joined a distinguished club consisting of Steffi Graf, Venus and Serena Williams.
The Belarusian became just the fourth woman after the aforementioned legends to beat the top three players in the world in the same tournament.
Graf achieved the feat when she accounted for Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles on her way to winning the French Open title in 1999. It was the first time anyone had beaten the world's top three players in the same event since the computer rankings were established.
Serena Williams emulated Graf's feat in Miami three years later when she scalped elder sister Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati and Hingis. Venus went on to accomplish the same at the WTA Tour Championships in 2008 with her defeats of Dinara Safina, Jelena Jankovic and Serena.
Fourteen years later, Aryna Sabalenka has joined the trio with her impressive performances at the ongoing year-ending championships being held in Fort Worth, Texas. The seventh-ranked player has registered three wins in four matches to reach the final.
Sabalenka started her campaign with a tight 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over World No. 2 Ons Jabeur. The seventh seed then suffered her only defeat of the tournament so far when she went down 6-2, 6-4 against Maria Sakkari.
Sabalenka promptly returned to winning ways with her 6-3, 7-5 triumph over World No. 3 Jessica Pegula in her final round-robin match of the week.
The 24-year-old then faced her biggest challenge in the semifinals on Sunday in the form of the irrepressible World No. 1 Iga Swiatek. Considering the fact that the Pole has won eight titles this year and had beaten Sabalenka four times in 2022, Swiatek was the heavy favorite to come through.
But the World No. 7 was up to the task this time around and recorded a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 win. Incidentally, the 2021 WTA Finals was the last tournament in which Aryna Sabalenka had previously defeated Swiatek before slumping to four consecutive losses.
How has Aryna Sabalenka fared this season?
Aryna Sabalenka reached a couple of Grand Slam semifinals and won two titles last year. However, she has struggled for much of the ongoing season and has failed to build on those highs from 2021.
Sabalenka is still searching for her first title of the year, having lost the Stuttgart and Rosmalen finals in April and June, respectively. She reached the US Open semifinals and appeared to be getting back to form when Swiatek stopped her in the tracks.
Other than that, the Belarusian also made the last four in Rome and Cincinnati.
Going by her lofty standards, this was a poor campaign for Sabalenka. Monday night's WTA Finals summit clash against World No. 6 Caroline Garcia will give her one final chance to redeem herself.
