[vc_empty_space height="5px"]
By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]2023 has been good to Aryna Sabalenka. She’s No. 2 in the world. She woke up on Thursday morning with 13 wins and no losses. First there was the warm-up title in Adelaide; then she won big in Melbourne, exorcising a number of demons en route. After some well-deserved rest she returned to competition this week in Dubai, playing her way to the quarterfinal. She has said that she hopes to bump Iga Swiatek out of the top ranking. And why not? Sabalenka can hardly be bothered to drop a set these days, a 26–2 tally during this win streak. In Dubai she’d cast aside Lauren Davis in under an hour. In the next round she triumphed with an acutely Jelena Ostapenko score line—2–6, 6–1, 6–1—over the combustible legend herself. It seemed all too possible that she’d meet Swiatek in the final this weekend and test her white-hot form against the consensus best player alive.