Tennis: FACTBOX-Tennis-Australian Open finalist Aryna Sabalenka

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Factbox on Australian Open finalist Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion, who beat American fourth seed Coco Gauff 7-6(2) 6-4 in the semi-finals (Prefix numbers denote seeding).

ARYNA SABALENKA

Age: 25

Nation: Belarus

WTA Ranking: 2

Seeding: 2

Grand Slam titles: 1 (Australian Open 2023)

ROAD TO FINAL

First round: beat Ella Seidel (Germany) 6-0 6-1

Second round: beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-2

Third round: beat 28-Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-0 6-0

Fourth round: beat Amanda Anisimova (U.S.) 6-3 6-2

Quarter-finals: beat 9-Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic)6-2 6-3

Semi-finals: beat 4-Coco Gauff (U.S.) 7-6(2) 6-4

EARLY LIFE

* Born in Minsk. Began playing tennis at age six.

CAREER TO DATE

* Began her professional career playing on the ITF Circuit in 2012.

* Won three singles titles and one doubles title on ITF Circuit in 2015.

* Played first WTA qualifying event at Rabat in 2016 and played in her first WTA main draw at Dubai the following year. Ended 2017 ranked number 78 for first top-100 finish.

* Won two WTA titles at New Haven and Wuhan in 2018. First Top-20 season finishing ranked 11th.

* Won three WTA singles titles and three doubles titles in 2019, including first Grand Slam doubles title at the U.S. Open with Belgian partner Elise Mertens.

* Won Doha, Ostrava and Linz titles for a joint Tour-leading record in 2020. Climbed one place in the rankings for her first Top-10 season.

* Won Abu Dhabi and Madrid in 2021 and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

* Reached the 2022 U.S. Open semi-finals. Qualified for the WTA Finals for the second consecutive year where she defeated the top 3 players of the tournament — Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Iga Swiatek — and finished runner-up losing to Caroline Garcia.

* Won the Australian Open beating Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) and reached Wimbledon and French Open semi-finals, finished runner-up at the U.S. Open in 2023 after defeat by Gauff. Also won titles in Adelaide and Madrid.

* Reached career high ranking of number one in September, 2023.

(Compiled by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)