Aryna Sabalenka is steamrolling the competition. After her emphatic 6-1, 6-4 third-round victory over Jaqueline Cristian at the Mutua Madrid Open, the Belarusian stands at 25 wins and just one loss in 2026. Fourteen consecutive victories. Three titles. And a sense of invincibility that is starting to evoke the great dominant runs in women's tennis.
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Saturday's match underlined the trend. Sabalenka opened with a devastating 5-0 run, pounding the baseline with a ferocity that Cristian could never contain. The Romanian 29th seed eventually found some answers in the second set, but the damage was done. In one hour and six minutes, the top seed had wrapped things up.
The season's numbers are staggering. Sabalenka claimed the Australian Open in January, then completed the "Sunshine Double" by winning back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami in March, a feat achieved only by the sport's greatest in the same calendar year. Her sole defeat? Against Iga Swiatek in the Stuttgart final, on clay, in a match decided by a third-set tiebreak. Since then, the Belarusian has resumed her dominant march.
What stands out about Sabalenka this season is the consistency of her level. There are no more dips, no more matches where the serve deserts her, no more sets lost through lack of focus. The work she has put in with her coaching team over the past two years is paying dividends. The backhand, long considered a weakness, has become a weapon. Her lateral movement has improved. And mentally, the world No. 1 projects a calm that contrasts sharply with the emotional storms of the past.
In Madrid, the road ahead is demanding. Her next opponent is likely to be Naomi Osaka or a qualifier, before a potential quarterfinal against Mirra Andreeva or Jessica Pegula. But at this point in the season, the question is no longer whether Sabalenka can be beaten. The question is who will find the formula to unsettle her.
The last player to post such a record in the opening months of a season was Serena Williams in 2013, when the American strung together 34 consecutive wins between February and June. Sabalenka is not there yet, but the trajectory is remarkable. And Roland-Garros, her least favourable surface among the four Grand Slams, might smile on her this time around, especially without her most dangerous clay-court rival in the draw.
