BREAKING: Aryna Sabalenka lands enormous payday after defeating Iga Swiatek in WTA final – Even more than Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and others combined
A first WTA Finals trophy isn’t the only thing at stake for Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina on Saturday. After both went unbeaten in the round-robin phase of the tournament, the winner of the last match of the season will take home $5.235 million when she takes the title in Riyadh with a combined 5-0 record.
It’s a hefty sum, the biggest payout in WTA history, in fact—and makes for a cool secondary motivation behind taking home the Billie Jean King Trophy for two players who have already earend some of the game’s other big prizes.
But the world No. 1, who bagged more than $12 million in year-to-date on-court earnings coming into the year-end championships and figures to improve on her already-lofty place amongst the highest-paid female athetes in the world after her successes this season, says “I never focus on the money.”
Q: Aryna, well done. So, what do you think it’s been like to play a match for more than $5 million?
ARYNA SABALENKA: I never focus on the money.
Q: Oh, come on. That’s not what [coach] Anton [Dubrov] said!
ARYNA SABALENKA: I never focus on the money when I play the match. I just really have a lot of love to the sport, and I really enjoy fighting. I really enjoy, like, pushing myself to the limit, and I enjoy these kind of things. And, I mean, of course, when you win, you think, ‘Oh actually, I’ve got a good check,’ you know. But this is never crossing my mind during the match. I mean, even right now, you just told me and before you told me that, I never, never thought about that. But it’s, of course, it’s a good check to have.
But one thing Sabalenka is focused on is racking up achievements that will one day add her name to the list of the game’s greats. Last year, she became the eighth player to reach the semifinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments and the WTA Finals in the same year, and the other seven are members of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
By doing it again this year, she joined a more exclusive club that consists of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Justine Henin and Steffi Graf.
Read more: Aryna Sabalenka has reached the semifinals at the five biggest tournaments of the year… again
“That’s crazy to hear my name next to these legends. I’m really far from them,” she said. “They are just another level. I feel amazing, and if someone would tell me that people will compare me to these legends one day, I wouldn’t believe that. It sounds so surreal.
“I’m just trying to push myself. I’m trying to bring my best tennis. I’m trying to make sure that people are coming, people enjoying me, watching kids are getting inspired by me, and then hopefully, by the end of my career, I’ll put my name next to these legends, and then I’ll be in the in the history of tennis.”
