Sabalenka Extends Record Tiebreak Streak at Wimbledon

If you can’t mow them down, you can always trim them up. 

That appears to be the tennis philosophy of Aryna Sabalenka, at least at the Grand Slams. 

When Sabalenka found herself in a tight tussle with talented American McCartney Kessler on Day 3, the top seed relied on her tiebreak superpowers to come through in straight sets. 

Sabalenka saved a pair of set points in a tug–o-war tiebreak that stretched her record streak of consecutive tiebreaks won at the Slams to 21. 

Sabalenka, who broke Novak Djokovic’s record in this category at the Australian Open, will face Jelena Ostapenko in the third round after her 6-1 7-6(9) triumph. 

Sabalenka hit 32 winners in the match, and converted all three of her break points to improve to 35-5 on the season, and 18-6 lifetime at Wimbledon. 

Sabalenka has reached three consecutive semifinals at Wimbledon, but has never progressed further at the Championshps. 

Djokovic famously won 19 consecutive tiebreaks from Wimbledon 2005 to Wimbledon 2007. The Serbian icon also recently won 15 consecutive tiebreaks in a single Grand Slam season, until he was stopped by Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon in 2023.

Sabalenka’s streak, which started during her loss to Karolina Muchova in the Roland-Garros semifinal in 2023, features a third-set tiebreak win over Madison Keys at the 2024 US Open (she won two in that match) and another that closed last year’s US Open final with Amanda Anisimova. One particularly epic tiebreak win came during her win over Iga Swiatek in last year’s Roland-Garros semifinal. That match snapped the Pole’s 26-match winning streak at the French.

Five of Sabalenka’s tiebreak wins have come against Top-10 players.

Where it stops, nobody knows…