Aryna Sabalenka kept her Wimbledon campaign moving with a straight-set win over Jelena Ostapenko, 6-4, 6-4, and the score did not tell the whole story. The No 1 seed was tested on Centre Court, laughed after shanking a smash on a serve-and-volley point, then moved on as if the mistake had never happened.
That one point came with Sabalenka leading 6-4, 2-1 and 30-0, when she rushed the net and misjudged Ostapenko’s slow, lofty return. The smash flew onto the service line, and Ostapenko finished the exchange with a forehand passing shot winner. It was a brief reminder that Wimbledon does not reward force alone, even when Sabalenka is in command.
What made the moment matter is that Sabalenka has been working on this part of her game at the Aorangi Park practice courts during the tournament. The added serve-and-volley work has given her another way to finish points on grass, where the first strike matters but the net can matter just as much. Against Ostapenko, that willingness to step forward helped support a win built on control rather than power alone.
It also fits the shape of Sabalenka’s season. She won 23 of her first 24 matches, took Indian Wells and Miami to complete the Sunshine Double in March, and then stalled after that run, reaching just one semi-final in the four tournaments she played after Miami. She later lost to Diana Shnaider in the Roland Garros quarter-finals, after becoming the first No 1 in history to lose 6-0 in the third set in consecutive matches, and she sought out her psychologist again after those losses. Her own answer has been simple: the plan is to get better every day.
There is still a catch. Sabalenka is playing well enough at Wimbledon to look settled on grass, but her No 1 ranking is not safe for long. Over the next 10 days she could lose it for the first time since last year, and Elena Rybakina would pass her if she won a second Wimbledon title. That keeps every round loaded with consequences, even as Sabalenka keeps winning.
Sabalenka has reached the Wimbledon semi-finals on three occasions and never gone further, so the next step is larger than one tidy straight-set result. Ostapenko, who beat her in the Stuttgart Open final on clay last year and won the 2017 French Open, was another useful test. Sabalenka passed it, but the ranking race means the tournament is still not just about how far she can go; it is about whether she can stay No 1 while trying to reach a stage at Wimbledon she has never cleared.
