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Aryna Sabalenka has irked a few tennis fans on the internet by ranking herself higher than Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina when it comes to playing on the hardcourts. She claimed that during her pre-tournament press conference at the 2024 Italian Open in Rome.
Sabalenka will kickstart her campaign against either Katie Volynets or Wang Yafan on Friday, May 10, in the second round after having received a bye in the first as the second seed.
It will be Sabalenka's third time at a claycourt tournament this year as she played the quarterfinal and final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Madrid Open recently. She lost to Swiatek in the Madrid Open summit clash in the Spanish capital after having gone past Rybakina in the semifinals.
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Ahead of the Rome journey, Aryna Sabalenka sat down in the press room where a journalist asked her if she agreed to being better than Swiatek and Rybakina on hardcourts. She affirmed, saying:
"Iga is much better on clay than me. I would say Elena is better on grass. I'm maybe a little bit better on hardcourt."
Fans on X (formerly Twitter) opposed the World No. 2's viewpoint with one of them questioning her ranking.
"If you're better on HCs then why are you not #1 as most of the tour is played on that surface," the fan wrote.
Another fan pulled out statistics to prove the Belarusian wrong and Swiatek as the maestro of hardcourts.
"Aryna won 4 tournaments in 3 years including 2024 (Adelaide, AO, Madrid, AO) Iga won 17 tournaments in last 3 years including 2024 including US Open (hard) WTA Finals (hard) 8 WTA 1000 tournaments (6 on hard) and some others. Sorry Aryna but numbers say you only win AO on hard," the fan wrote.
A third fan claimed that Swiatek's game favors slower hardcourts whereas Sabalenka and Rybakina enjoy the faster courts.
"Depends on the speed of hard courts also, Iga thrives on slower hard courts compared to Aryna and Elena that love the fast courts," the fan wrote.
Here a few more fan reactions:
"I'm gonna say Iga already have more titles on hard that on clay... so clay and hard for Iga," a fan stated.
"Iga: Clay and slow hard court," wrote another.
"Unpopular opinion: Sabalenka is better on grass than Rybakina," a fan tweeted.
Aryna Sabalenka trails Iga Swiatek 3-2 in hardcourt head-to-head, leads Elena Rybakina 4-3
Aryna Sabalenka has played against Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina nine times each but her overall head-to-head tallies with the two are mirror images of each other. She trails Swiatek 3-6 and leads Rybakina 6-3.
As far as hardcourt-specific records are concerned, Sabalenka is in a disadvantageous situation against the Pole with a deficit of 2-3 but enjoys a 4-3 lead over Rybakina.
Both of the Belarusian's win over Swiatek on hard courts came at the WTA Finals in 2021 and 2022. However, the following year, the Pole beat her in the semifinals of the year-end tournament. Swiatek also triumphed over Sabalenka in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open and the semifinals of the US Open, both in 2022.
Aryna Sabalenka's maiden Grand Slam title came on hard, when she beat Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final in 2023. That year, the Kazakh defeated her in the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. The duo's most recent encounter on hard court came at this season's Brisbane International, with Rybakina thrashing Sabalenka 6-0, 6-3.
