Aryna Sabalenka has opened up on her emotions around becoming World No. 1 for the first time in her career in an interview with Vogue.

25-year-old Sabalenka has been snapping at the heels of top seed Iga Swiatek for a while now but had fallen short of dethroning her. Her clearest opportunity before now was at Wimbledon in July, when Swiatek's defeat in the quarter-finals meant Sabalenka would overtake her if she reached the final. Unfortunately for her though, she lost her semi-final match against Ons Jabeur.

Nevertheless, Sabalenka finally saw her dream come true at Flushing Meadows after Swiatek was ousted in the Round of 16 by Jelena Ostapenko. This means that the Belarusian will become No. 1 in the WTA Ranking when they are updated next week.

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Sabalenka talks of excitement

In an interview with Vogue, Sabalenka spoke of her emotions regarding achieving such a feat.

"Honestly, I’m super excited to be world number one, but it’s not changing anything. It’s not like things will be easier for me right now—probably, yes, it would be better for me to learn this next week, not in the middle of the tournament [laughing]—but yeah, it is how it is. Of course I’m super excited and super happy to achieve this goal," she said.

She also revealed that she had received a shout-out of sorts from Novak Djokovic, who will usurp Carlos Alcaraz in the ATP Ranking next week.

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"Novak messaged me saying, “Smile if you’re going to be world number one soon,” and sent this funny picture of the two of us. A lot of players messaged me—a lot of people," she continued.

Finally, the 25-year-old spoke about her father, whose dream it was to see hid daughter reach World No. 1 but who sadly passed away a few years ago.

"I just saw how proud he was of me—how he was celebrating every win, every title—and he told me then that I have everything I needed to achieve this goal: I just had to learn myself better, to learn how to control my emotions, and one day I’d be world number one. It was like our dream," she explained.

José Morgado

@josemorgado

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Tennis has a new World Number #1. Aryna Sabalenka, the 29th in the history of the WTA.

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