"I feel like it's the Big Two last month": Aryna Sabalenka honest about current form in comparison to Swiatek and Rybakina

With Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina in pole position to usurp Aryna Sabalenka after the Madrid Open, the latter made a startling confession about her own current form that it feels like the Big Two over the Big Three over the last month.

This referring to Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, with the duo touted alongside Sabalenka as WTA's answer to the famous Big Three. A lot of question then surrounded this over the past year and whether it was the case. But from the highs of the Australian Open, it hasn't clicked again for the Belarusian likely through a myriad of not playing enough and also her own personal issues which have seen her only just start to click again recently. She took down Magda Linette on Friday with Robin Montgomery now awaiting at the Madrid Open.

“I feel like I kind of dropped my level a little bit with this Big Three,” Sabalenka said before the Madrid Open. "I feel like it’s the Big Two last month.”

But while she sees this as the case, she doesn't feel the need to build confidence. "It’s not about being confident,” Sabalenka said. "It’s about how much you’re ready to do to get it. It’s about the hard work and to be ready, be ready for the big fights. I feel like confidence is not going to help you in those big matches. It’s about staying there and fighting for it.

“I will say, I will be there, I will be fighting for every point and if I have an opportunity, I will take it. That’s my mentality going into the clay season this year.”