Defending AO champ Aryna Sabalenka, 26, gets candid about retirement

Defending Australian Open champ Aryna Sabalenka has made an eyebrow-raising admission about her future on the eve of her 2025 campaign.

Defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has admitted she is “getting really close to retirement”.

At the ripe old age of 26, the women’s powerhouse believes she is in a new phase of her career after rising to the top of the ranks.

Sabalenka has been nothing short of unstoppable in Melbourne, capturing back-to-back titles and also claiming the US Open crown in the process.

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As she enters the 2025 Australian Open as the world No. 1, it’s clear that the Belarusian has reached the top of her game. But as she revealed in a video released by the tournament just hours before her opening match against Sloane Stephens, even the world’s best can feel the weight of the world stage pressing.

Sabalenka recalled her younger days running along the Yarra River and admitted she is already slowing down.

“Now I’m not running that much. I need to save my hips, my back,” she said, earning a chuckle.

“I’m 26, 27 this year, oh my god, 27 this year,” she said.

“I played an exhibition with Mirra Andreeva — I’m nine years older than her. Nine. Being a professional athlete, I’m getting really close to my retirement. Can you believe that? People are retiring at like 30.”

Then the inevitable question about her future came.

Sabalenka has captured back-to-back titles and also claimed the US Open in 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

‘I hope I’ll have family. I love kids, I don’t want to have my first kid at 35.’ (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)

“I don’t know, it’s a tough question,” she began.

“I hope I’ll have family. I love kids, I don’t want to have my first kid at 35.

“I really want to have a kid and then come back. I want my kid to see how hard you should work in life to get things. So yeah, I don’t know. That’s a very deep conversation.”

Sabalenka endured an unthinkable personal tragedy in 2024 when her partner, former NHL ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, was found dead in Miami.

Police said his death was treated as an “apparent suicide”.

Koltsov was a former professional hockey player with the Belarus national team and played with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL.

Sabalenka had been dating Koltsov since the summer of 2021.

Originally published as Defending AO champ Aryna Sabalenka, 26, gets candid about retirement