"She loses in a Slam final and we go, 'What happened?'" - Failure inevitable for Aryna Sabalenka after reaching ridiculous heights in tennis

Aryna Sabalenka has been the number one player on the WTA over 2025, with her incredibly high level of consistency on court being noticed by tennis fans and pundits alike. On the podcast Served, Andy Roddick and Jon Wertheim piece together her 2025 campaign, singling out her ability to win over again at the highest level while debating how many major titles she will get to.

The US Open Sabalenka won in September halted a run of near misses in Grand Slam events. She lost a brace of finals in the Australian Open and Roland Garros, along with being dumped out in the semi-finals at Wimbledon. Despite all that she had won and completed in a dominant campaign, Roddick felt like the expectations with Sabalenka were so much higher than anyone else.

"Obviously still playing in the Tour Finals, but up to 59–11 on the year with four titles. It’s weird to say 'saving your season' when you’re a 52-week number one, but I think that’s an interesting conversation — when you get to a certain level of greatness, you kind of redefine expectations a little bit," Roddick said.

He went on to acknowledge the bracket of tennis player that Sabalenka is in. "We didn’t have a lot of forgiveness for her losing in Grand Slam finals. And then you look back at the year and go, 'Okay, what person on earth wouldn’t take 59–11, four titles, a Grand Slam, two other Grand Slam finals, and running at 52-week number one?' Chrissy [Evert] did it twice. Martina [Navratilova] did it three times. Steffi Graf did it five times. Serena [Williams] did it twice. Ash Barty did it twice — though with a bit of an asterisk because rankings were frozen in 2020."

Wertheim was also quick to praise the Belarusian, putting her on a very high pedestal compared to her compatriots. "When you’re number one to start the year and you’ve won two majors the previous season, and then you don’t win any of the first three, it’s kind of reasonable to say, “Can she salvage her season?” I think even she might say that on some level," he said, going along the same lines as Roddick.

He was also impressed with where she had come from, fighting off her past demons. "This is a generational player in her prime. I still think her recovery from those serving yips is one of the great underrated stories in tennis over the last five years," Wertheim said. "She’s playing at the most elevated level, and honestly, if she ends up with double-digit majors, it wouldn’t surprise me."

Continuing from this, Wertheim heavily backed Sabalenka to clinch many more Grand Slam titles, improving drastically from the four she currently holds. "Things are really clicking. You look back and at first you think, 'She has no plan B — all hit-or-miss tennis.' But she’s made adjustments. Now you look back and think, if she’d closed out a couple of those matches, she might already be an eight- or nine-time major champion. As it stands, I think she’ll get there. She’s still in her mid-to-late 20s, so she’s got time."

Roddick delved into the tournaments she played in this year, finding out that the majority of them were the big events, making her record even more remarkable. "It means a lot. You look at those 59 match wins — she’s now in that space where the only way to talk about her is among the giants of the game.

The former US Open champion labelled her as the 'most reliable player on tour. "She didn’t play any small tournaments. No 250s. Only three 500s. She basically put together that consistency while only playing 1000s and Slams. Eight finals in fifteen tournaments. She’s the most reliable player on tour — and honestly, I don’t think there’s a close second right now," he said.

It is not just her winning these big events, it is that fans expect her to regularly lift these titles. "She’s just building one hell of a resume. And I think we can’t lose sight of that — we take her success for granted now. She loses in a Slam final and we go, What happened?' Do you know how good you have to be for people to react that way?" Roddick stated.

The world number one will look to clinch her maiden WTA Finals Title in Riyadh, with the inform Elena Rybakina standing in her way of yet another piece of silverware.