These are the three young women who carried Belarus through the maze of zones and groups to reach the Fed Cup final in 2017 and did well enough in 2018 to qualify for the World Group in 2019 - Belarus's third straight year in World Group. Among the 105 nations competing in Fed Cup, Belarus is ranked #3, only behind the Czech Republic and the USA. Belarus kicks off their 2019 Fed Cup campaign in Germany, Feb, 9,10. and it will be the rising-level games of this triumvirate that Belarus will count on to get past Germany and possibly on to anther final.
Each of these young women has her own story played out in ITF events and WTA qualies and main draws on courts from Minsk to Madrid, from Brisbane to Beijing, from Wuhan to the Western and Southern Open:
Aryna Sabalenka:
Back in January, 2018, I wrote about Aryna Sabalenka just before the Australian Open when she was playing in Hobart and getting some double-takes from tennis fans worldwide: "I feel she has the potential to be one of the best in this new generation of women, perhaps even the next great player in the women's game. And she's only 19. My God...Her's is not just another blip on the tennis radar. It is a robust signal that's saying... 'I'm coming.'"
Well, she has come and in a thunderously big way. Counseled intelligently by her new coach, Dmitry Tursunov, who brought craft to her big game, Sabalenka, now 20, will end this year, 2018, at #11 in the world and #11 on the Porsche Race to Singapore, almost making it to Singapore as an alternate. The trip that took her from #78 in the world at the start of the year to this year-end career high of #11, a climb of 66 points through tough opposition, featured five quarter finals - Shenzhen, Hobart, 'S-Hertogenbosch, Beijing, and Tianjin; One semi-final at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati; and four finals - Lugano, Eastbourne, the Connecticut Open in New Haven, and Wuhan.
Now giving all this some chronology for the drama for the cresting of the year-end momentum: In Eastbourne she beat Julia Goerges, Karolina Pliskova (#7), and Aga Radwanska. Moving from the grass to the hard courts of the US Swing, she really began to motor in Cincinnati where she took out Johanna Konta, Madison Keys, Karolina Pliskova (#8), and Caroline Garcia (#5). In the stop before in Montreal at the Rogers Cup, she beat Caroline Wozniacki (#2). Rolling now into New Haven, where she wins her maiden WTA Title, she takes out Julia Goerges (#9) again and Carla Suarez-Navarro in the final. She kicks off the Asian Swing in Wuhan where she picks up her second WTA Title of the year, cruising through Dominica Cibulkova and Ashleigh Barty, upsetting Elina Svitolina (#6), and then beating Anett Kontaveit in the final. In Beijing she takes out Garbine Muguruza and Caroline Garcia, (# 8), makes a quarter-final run in Tianjin, and then ends the year seeded #3 at the Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, where she was the only player to beat the eventual and well-deserved winner, Ashleigh Barty.
During this hot run from Eastbourne she beat top-ten players 8 times including Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Garcia each twice. Although she didn't make it beyond the first round in the first three slams of the year - the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon, once she got into high gear in Cincinnati and New Haven, she made a march to the second week of the US Open where she knocked out Petra Kvitová (#5), only to be halted by the eventual grand slam winner, Naomi Osaka. And for the record it should be noted that Aryna Sabalenka was the only player to take a set off Osaka during the tournament and was up 4-1 in the third before faltering. One commentator felt that the winner of the US Open would come out of that R16 match. She was right.
Poised at #11, she is ready to raid the ranks of the top ten in 2019. With that tiger tattoo on her left forearm and an indomitable spirit, I see her advancing with the same ferocity we see in her shots. Go Tiger!
Aliaksandra Sasnovich:
Aliaksandra Sasnovich first came to my attention in Belarus's semi-final victory over Switzerland in their 2017 Fed Cup tie. In her singles wins over Victoria Golubic and Timea Bacsinszky, she elegantly moved around the court imparting her own court craft and the Minsk crowd energy into every point and shot. I saw something special there in this 23 year-old Belarusian who was only ranked #96 in the world at the time. I made a mental note to keep my eye on her, but it was Aryna Sabalenka who was mostly grabbing my attention.
And I kept my eye on her as she masterfully put away Sloane Stephens (#13) at the 2017 Fed Cup final which the USA won in a deciding doubles match, and she then went on in 2018 to rise to a year-end ranking of #30. This is how she got there.
First, like all players she paid her dues. Some history: On the ITF pro circuit main draws she was 113-49 with 11 ITF single titles earning her way into WTA tournaments. Starting the year 2017 at #121 in the world, she made her way through qualification rounds to the quarter finals in Budapest, R64 in Miami losing to Jo Konta, and after her semi-final run at Biel, Switzerland, where she took out the alternately brilliant and awful but always fun to watch Camila Giorgi in the quarters, she had raised her ranking to qualify for the main draws at the slams: Roland Garros - loss to Shuai Zhang R64, Wimbledon - tough first round draw and loss to Jelena Ostapenko, US Open: loss to Ashleigh Barty R64. Losing early, yes, but she had earned the right to be there. She finished off the 2017 regular season with a quarter-final run at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow where she took out Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic before losing to Daria Kasatkina. And then the Fed Cup victory over reigning US Open Champ Sloane Stephens at the Fed Cup final. The stage was set for her rise up the rankings in 2018.
Ranked #87 in the world, Aliaksandra Sasnovich blew into Brisbane and blew away the field - three in the qualies, then Kristina Mladenovic (#11), Anett Kontaveit, Alize Cornet, and Anastasija Sevastova (#16) before losing to Elina Svitolina (#6) in the final. Not a bad way to kick off the year and with 660 more ranking points and over $100,000 in prize money, she headed to Melbourne.
She has a very charming, disarming, kind of innocently funny way about her which came out in her on-court interviews during the Brisbane run. She endeared herself to me. She was now on my radar, if only for the laughs at interview time.
Driven by a persistent, imperturbable court demeanor, she slowly but steadily made her way up the rankings in 2018. She reached the third rounds at Melbourne Park and Indian Wells where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki in a tight 3-setter. After getting bogged down a bit in the clay-court season, she rebounded at Wimbledon, reaching the second week, knocking out Petra Kvitová (#7) and Daria Gavrilova before losing to Jelena Ostapenko. Back in the USA, having gone through the qualies, she reached the quarter finals in New Haven, beating Mladenovic again along the way before losing to Caroline Garcia (#6) in 3 close sets.
Now, having risen to #37, she got knocked out in the third round of the US Open by the eventual winner Naomi Osaka but not before beating Belinda Bencic and Daria Kasatkina (#11) in the first two rounds. The Asian Swing didn't swing her way, but she capped off her 2018 season with a quarter-final run at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, knocking out #10 Kiki Bertens, and setting the stage for what I believe will be a 2019 that could see this 24 year-old Belarusian among the top twenty in the world.
Vera Lapko:
I don't remember the tournament where Vera Lapko first got my attention, but I do remember noticing in this 6'0" Belarusian player a power and a poise that belied her young age of 20. I could see that these basic elements of the game were yet undeveloped in her, but I could also see the potential she possessed for making a major climb up the rankings in both singles and doubles which she has been successfully balancing.
Some stats: At the end of 2016 and 2017 her singles and doubles rankings, respectively were 131,102 and 318,283. She now, at the very end of 2018, has a singles ranking of 65 and a doubles ranking of 93. During 2016 and 2017 she amassed 6 ITF single titles and 7 ITF doubles titles. Although during 2018 she put her attention mostly on WTA tournaments, along the way she picked up 2 more ITF single titles, was a runner-up in one, and made a quarter-final run in another.
The highlights of her rise and achievements in 2018 include:
- She had a stellar year in doubles reaching the finals in Lugano (partnered with Sabalenka) Ghangzhou, and Luxembourg. She had a semi-final run at the Indian Wells Oracle Challenger Series and made the quarters in St Petersburg and Tashkent. She also was instrumental in Belarus's deciding doubles match victory in Fed Cup over Slovakia that further cemented their place in the World Group for 2019.
- Slowly grinding her way up the singles rankings often through the qualies amid some direct entries into main draws, she moved into the top 100 from #102 at the start of the year and continued to climb. This climb featured: a semi-final run in Lugano where she took out Anett Kontaveit and Kirsten Flipkens before losing to Elise Mertens, in Nottingham she beat Jana Fett in the first round before losing to Donna Vekic, taking her to a second set tie-break, in San Jose she beat Shuai Zhang in round one before losing to Danielle Collins in 3 sets, in Linz she knocked out the tough Beinda Bencic before losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in 3 close sets, 7-5, 6-7(4), 3-6. She ended her year with a quarter-final run in Luxembourg, taking out Carina Witthoeft and Pauline Parmentier before falling to a resurgent Belinda Bencic.
- In the Slams: Her achievements here were modest but encouraging. Singles: Although she did not make it out of the qualies at Melbourne or Roland Garros, by Wimbledon she had the ranking for the main draw beating Christine McHale in the first round before losing to Julia Goerges in 3 sets. At the US Open she took out Kateryna Bondarenko before losing to Elise Mertens in the second round. Doubles: Although her team did not make it beyond the first round at RG (loss to the #1 doubles team - Krejcikova and Siniakova), Wimbledon, and the US Open, over the year she had raised her doubles ranking from 283 to 93, a rise of 190 points. Progress.
My prediction is that in 2019 this triumvirate will continue to triumph. Aryna Sabalenka will craftily blast her way into the top ten and will be on many short lists for winning slams in 2019. Aliaksandra Sasnovich can surprise and rebound when she's down a few games or a set. Slowly, but unrelentingly, I see her taking her maturing game and imperturbable court demeanor into the top 25, even into the top 20 by the end of the year. I see Vera Lapko to be on the threshold of a breakthrough to a consistently higher level of play. We saw that kind of breakthrough with Sabalenka this year. With such a breakthrough, only what awaits her are more breakthroughs, which could take her inside the top 40 and beyond.
For each of these players individually and for the prospects for Belarus in the Fed Cup for 2019, the future looks very bright.
Anyway, that's how I see it.
Appendix
1. Here is the post on Aryna Sabalenka I wrote back in January of 2018:
Aryna Sabalenka - January Post, 2018
2. A clip to give you a flavor of the charming personality of Aliaksandra Sasnovich:
3. To give you a look at the big game of Vera Lapko, here is a clip of her in that semi-final against Elise Mertens in Lugano, Switzerland:
2. A clip to give you a flavor of the charming personality of Aliaksandra Sasnovich:
3. To give you a look at the big game of Vera Lapko, here is a clip of her in that semi-final against Elise Mertens in Lugano, Switzerland:
Great article, John. Thanks for shining a spotlight on these rising young players. I really enjoyed the detail and came away convinced of their potential.
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