Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, two of the game’s premier power players, are certainly high on motivation when they enter this year’s Wimbledon championships.
After heartbreaking losses at the same event 12 months ago, and difficulties in the past few weeks, a barnstorming run at the All England Club would be brilliantly restorative for either.
Rybakina is a former champion, winning her first Grand Slam singles title here in 2022. Sabalenka has reached the semifinals in her past two visits, both times coming within a set of the final.
Jelena Dokic, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2000, believes this duo rises to the top of the conversation this year, despite other threats looming.
“Wimbledon is a little bit more open; I think that there are few players that are still maybe not even aware that they can win Wimbledon, and know their games on grass,” said the former world No.4.
"I love the fact that we've got power players, like Sabalenka and Rybakina; (Coco) Gauff and (Iga) Swiatek excel with athleticism and their fitness and court coverage. Iga for me is very much like Steffi Graf, the way that she goes about her business. Mirra Andreeva is something special, because she's a bit of a few different players, like a (Martina) Hingis but perhaps with a bit more power. She's still going to develop.
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"I really look forward to every single Grand Slam, because I think we're going to have a different winner, and we're going to have some of those match-ups later in the tournaments. But they're all capable of beating each other.
"Rybakina and Sabalenka, they are probably some of the favourites. I don't even know if they've reached their peak yet.
"But look at what happened last year – Ons (Jabeur) beat them both.”
Those defeats to the Tunisian star are one of several ways in which Sabalenka and Rybakina have found themselves connected in the past 18 months.
Already their games bear a resemblance; at 184cm and 182cm tall respectively, they possess two of the biggest first serves in the game and extraordinary back-court power.
There are differences, with Rybakina having a slight edge on serve while Sabalenka executes her groundstrokes with greater shape and spin. But as Tennis Australia’s senior data analyst Simon Rea once noted, such power from the serve, forehand and backhand is confronting for opponents and leaves them with few areas to attack.
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"Sabalenka and Rybakina, in my mind, I think they elevate themselves to the top of the charts in terms of favouritism going into Wimbledon,” said Rea, former coach of Nick Kyrgios and Sam Stosur.
“I think they leap-frog Iga.”
Their games fused beautifully in the Australian Open 2023 final, one of the great Grand Slam women’s deciders, from which Sabalenka emerged triumphant after almost two-and-a-half hours.
But Jabeur was able to disrupt those games and beat them back-to-back at Wimbledon in 2023 – Rybakina in the quarterfinals, Sabalenka in the semis – despite trailing each by a set.
Sabalenka rebounded to defend her AO title in 2024 and Rybakina seemed to be firming as a Roland Garros contender when she won the Stuttgart title and reached the Madrid semis.
But she played a curiously listless quarterfinal against Jasmine Paolini, spraying 48 unforced errors to make a surprising three-set exit. And in the very next match at Court Philippe Chatrier, an ill Sabalenka succumbed to Andreeva, also in three.
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Then, in Berlin, both Sabalenka and Rybakina were forced to retire from their quarterfinals on successive days; Sabalenka with a shoulder issue, Rybakina with abdominal pain.
Thankfully, this symmetry has entered more positive territory this week at the All England Club, with both spotted on the practice courts.
Rybakina, for one, is thrilled to be back at a happy hunting ground.
“I think I can play on all the surfaces,” she said at Roland Garros. “Of course, looking back to the results, grass I will say (is) the favourite because it's fast.
“Just always the question is being healthy.”
Should she and Sabalenka remain that way, it could be a fabulous fortnight for both at Wimbledon.