Considering Aryna Sabalenka’s dominance at the top of the WTA Tour for the past few years, it’s a major surprise that she has still not win the WTA Finals.

Sabalenka has claimed four Grand Slam titles in the past four seasons and spent over 1000 weeks at the summit of the WTA Tour, but the year-end tournament has been a blind spot.

The star has reached the final twice, in 2022 and 2025, but saw her campaigns ended by Carolina Garcia and Elena Rybakina respectively.

The world No 2 does, however, still hold a perfect record at the tournament which she continued by beating Karolina Muchova in her first match at the 2026 event.

Sabalenka defeated the Czech star 7-6, 7-5 to open up her 2026 campaign with a victory.

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That victory also means she is now 11-0 at the WTA Finals when she wins the first set, which is a remarkably impressive record against the WTA Tour’s very best.

Despite not winning the year-end tournament, Sabalenka holds a very strong record at the WTA Finals in her previous five appearances at the event.

She has won 12 of her 19 matches at the WTA Finals and she has only failed to qualify from the round robin phase on one occasion, back in 2021.

Since, she has reached two finals and two semifinals, so it will surely not be too long before she lifts the title for the first time in her career.

She will play Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitolina in the round robin phase as she looks to continue her excellent record at the year-end event.

Sabalenka also knows what it takes to win an event at Indian Wells, which is the one-time home of the WTA Finals for the 2026 season.

The world No 2 won Indian Wells for the first time in her career in 2026, which she followed by lifting the Miami Open title to confirm the Sunshine Double.

But she has also reached the final of Indian Wells on two other occasions, in 2023 and 2025, so she has often saved her best tennis for the California location.

That could prove to be a good omen for Sabalenka at the WTA Finals and it means she could make up some ground on Elena Rybakina at the top of the WTA Tour.

Sabalenka lost her world No 1 status to Rybakina during the North American hardcourt swing, but the star’s withdrawal has opened the door for Sabalenka.

Should Sabalenka win the WTA Finals, she will be within touching distance of becoming the world No 1 again and could do it as soon as the Australian Open.