Stat of the Year, No. 4: Aryna Sabalenka’s rare Australian Open-US Open sweep

Yesterday we kicked off our Top 5 Stats of the Year countdown with Coco Gauff becoming the youngest woman to defeat the world No. 1 and No. 2 at the same tournament since 2006.

Today, the countdown continues with another rare double.

Aryna Sabalenka had a career year this year, highlighted by winning both of the hard-court majors, the Australian Open in January and the US Open at the end of the summer.

And she blew through those draws, too, dropping just one set along the way—that was the first set of her third-round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova at the US Open, and she bounced back from it in scary fashion, eventually cruising, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

But it turns out winning both hard-court majors in the same season has become extremely rare in recent decades.

Sabalenka became just the second woman in the last 27 years to win the Australian Open and US Open in the same season.

Yes, you read that right.

Since Martina Hingis achieved the feat as a 16-year-old in 1997, only one other woman—Angelique Kerber in 2016—did the double.

Since 1988, which was the first year that both events were held on hard courts, Sabalenka is the fifth woman overall to do it.

WOMEN TO WIN AUSTRALIAN OPEN AND US OPEN IN SAME YEAR (since 1988):
Steffi Graf [1988, 1989]
Monica Seles [1991, 1992]
Martina Hingis [1997]
Angelique Kerber [2016]
Aryna Sabalenka [2024]

The US Open switched from clay to hard courts in 1978, while the Australian Open switched from grass to hard courts in 1988.

Perhaps even more incredible about this feat is that it’s one of the rare things that the most accomplished women’s tennis player in the Open Era, and maybe in history, didn’t achieve—Serena Williams won seven Australian Opens and six US Opens in her career, but was never able to win them both in the same year.

Our Top 5 Stats of the Year countdown continues tomorrow with a top-seeded three-peat…