Aryna Sabalenka plays her best tennis when it matters most, yet when it seems like she has sort of an “open draw” she flops. Not too long ago, she was struggling with her serve. It wasn’t her opponents’ powerful groundstrokes, or their lack of unforced errors. No. It was her own game looting her down over and over again. It got so bad she had to see a specialist who helped her fix this issue.

But how do you go to when you lose matches you were supposed to win?

I get it. It’s hard having all that pressure on you as one of the top players in the world. But that is what it takes.

I’m not saying she is supposed to win every match. But over the years we saw some of best players in the world like Djokovic, Nadal, and Serena Williams almost always reaching finals, and if they fail to get the title, They would’ve at least reaching the final.

Iga Swiatek won multiple titles in a row this year including a grand slam. And yes, Sabalenka won the Australian open in January, but after that she lost to Vekic, who wasn’t even a seed in Dubai, to Navarro, the 23rd seed, in Indian wells. To Kalinina, the 32nd seed, in Miami. To Vondrousova, 6th seed in Stuttgart. To Andreeva, unseeded, in Roland Garros. Last week, she lost to Bouzkova in the Citi Open semifinals. And Just yesterday she lost to Amanda Anisimova, once a grand slam semifinalist, but who is ranked 132nd in the world at the moment after coming back from a mental health break.

It’s worth mentioning that these losses happened in the first rounds of the tournaments. All against players far from Sabalenka’s own ranking.

I didn’t watch her match against Anisimova yesterday. But I watched many of the ones I mentioned above. And I remember seeing her hit unforced error, after unforced error. A memory comes to mind of her US Open final against Gauff. She looked in control, but suddenly the errors started to be more frequent and fast forward an hour later she had lost the match after starting the match very dominantly and being a set up.

Something has to change soon if Aryna wants to stay at the top.