{"id":272805,"date":"2025-07-18T19:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/272805\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T19:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:19:11","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-could-join-john-mcenroe-and-lindsay-davenport-on-unwanted-list-if-she-does-not-win-the-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/272805\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka could join John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport on unwanted list if she does not win the US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aryna Sabalenka will be absolutely desperate to win the US Open this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After all, she is the defending champion, and will have pride on the line as well as another chance to extend her legacy.<\/p>\n

However, there are alternative factors at play which must be considered; most crucially, the fact that she is yet to win a major in 2025.<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, the Belarusian has reached the final of two of those tournaments, and the semi-finals most recently at Wimbledon, yet has lacked the necessary steel at the crucial moments to finish off the match.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

She led by one set in Melbourne and Paris, yet saw success slip through her fingers.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> cannot allow this to happen again in New York.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka must win the US Open to avoid unwanted record<\/strong><\/p>\n

After all, if she is to fail to defend her title, there is far more on the line than just the trophy itself.<\/p>\n

In fact, she will join an unwanted list which actually boasts some incredibly high-profile names, including American tennis legends like John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport.<\/p>\n

These players both share a sad commonality between their respective seasons in 1982 and 2005: they finished the year as world number one, yet failed to win a Grand Slam throughout that season.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is on track to achieve that same underwhelming feat, given the huge lead she holds at the top of the WTA rankings.<\/p>\n

Nobody can catch her now, so it\u2019s simply down to her to win the US Open<\/a> to avoid joining this list.<\/p>\n

\"2024Photo by Emaz\/VIEW press\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Davenport reached the final of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and the quarter-finals in Paris and New York during that dreaded year.<\/p>\n

McEnroe, meanwhile, lost to Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon final, and fell in the semi-finals of the US Open.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka withdraws from Montreal Open<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s preparation for the US Open has hit an instant snag though, with the 27-year-old having just pulled out of the Montreal Open, which starts later this month.<\/p>\n

Citing fatigue, it\u2019s understandable that she might want a longer break after the gruelling season she has endured thus far.<\/p>\n

Not to mention the fact that she is without a Grand Slam success, despite being the dominant player thus far this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by Hannah Peters\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It must take a physical and emotional toll.<\/p>\n

So, whilst on paper pulling out of a tournament might seem worrying, in the long run this will surely benefit Sabalenka and allow her to return to New York fresher and more likely to enjoy a deep run.<\/p>\n

Especially considering there are fears over how the New York crowd might react to her after the controversy surrounding Sabalenka\u2019s comments about Coco Gauff after the French Open final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether any scrutiny emerges, and how it affects her, remains to be seen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka will be absolutely desperate to win the US Open this year. After all, she is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[35772,13793,100977,79,1068,16,15,5067],"class_list":{"0":"post-272805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-john-mcenroe","10":"tag-lindsay-davenport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-us-open"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114875856755714613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}