Aryna Sabalenka has come through her first-round match at Wimbledon, and the world number one will be a hot favourite for the title this year.
Sabalenka defeated the Canadian performer Carson Branstine 6-1, 7-5 to ensure an easy passage into the second round of a tournament that she’s yet to win.
The 27-year-old has reached two semi-finals at SW19 in 2021 and 2023 but has never been to the final to play for what would have to be considered the biggest title of her career.
Sabalenka has been in red-hot form in 2025, however, and after losing the French Open final, she arrives in London on a mission to get back in the winner’s circle.
After her win, the talk has once again turned towards the fact that women only play three sets in comparison to the men who play best of five at Grand Slam events.
Aryna Sabalenka shares claim about women playing best of three
Some might find the constant talk regarding women not playing the best of five quite boring; however, it does become a hot topic of discussion at these events.
After winning her first-round match at Wimbledon today, Sabalenka has been asked about the somewhat tiresome subject and given her honest answer.
She said in her press conference: “I think probably physically I’m one of the strongest ones. Maybe it would benefit me. But I’m not ready to play 5 sets. I think it’s too much on the woman’s body.
“We are not ready for this amount of tennis. I think it would increase the number of injuries. So this isn’t something I would consider. I’ll leave this for the guys to handle.”
It’s refreshing to hear a player be so honest on this subject and it will be interesting to see if there is any argument against the women’s body not standing up to the test of a five-set tennis match.
What Aryna Sabalenka said about Jannik Sinner vs Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open
Naturally, this subject has been sparked again after Alcaraz and Sinner enjoyed a memorable match at the French Open in early June.
Sabalenka was impressed with the quality on show in that match, even if she has little interest in taking part in five sets on the WTA Tour.
She continued: “I was happy to see that long, high-quality match. For someone watching, it’s amazing to see like five hours of great tennis. It’s so fun to watch. But I’m not really jealous to stay there for 5 hours.
“As a player.. I don’t know how many days they needed to recover after that crazy match. But it was an unbelievable match.”
Sabalenka will look to go all the way at Wimbledon this year and will hope to remain focused on getting her hands on the prize this year.
For now, however, it seems she would like the talk of women playing five sets to cease…
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