By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday January 10, 2025

As the most dominant hard court player in the women’s game, and the defending two-time Australian Open champion, expectations are as high as they have ever been for Aryna Sabalenka this year in Melbourne.



But the three-time major champion does not want to dwell on any of that. She just wants to take things match by match and stay in her happy place.

“I don't want to overthink about that,” the top seed said on Friday’s media day at the Australian Open. “I just want to do my job. Hopefully by the end of this tournament I'll be super proud of myself and I'll be able to put my name in the history.”

No.1-ranked Sabalenka, who will face American Sloane Stephens in first-round action, says she doesn’t mind that the rest of the tour is gunning for her. She says playing with a target on her back is exactly where she wants to be.

“I always liked to accept really tough challenges,” she said. “For me being the one to chase, I like it. I like that feeling. That's what drives me and helps me to stay motivated because I know that I have a target on my back. I really like to have it. That's why I work really hard, to make sure that nobody can get to me.”

Whatever happens in Australia, Sabalenka is buoyed by the confidence that comes from experience. She has won 14 straight in Melbourne, and 14 in a row at the hard court Slams. She’s learned how to deal with the rigors of working her way through a two-week major event and she’s good at compartmentalizing and staying loose when she’s not on the court.

“My mindset changed a lot,” she said when asked to compare herself to the player that won her maiden major in Australian two years ago. “Approach to the slams is different. Priorities are different. I would say that mentally I changed a lot. I have that understanding that, ‘Okay, I got it, I know how to do that.’

“I know how to separate on-court and off-court life. Before an extra day off would be too much for me because I would overthink about the upcoming match.”