What happened to Aryna Sabalenka’s vow after the bittersweet ‘Break Point’ season finale?

WATCH: Aryna Sabalenka's amazing Australian Open | Talking Tennis With Tracy

From her first confessional on Break Point, it’s evident that Aryna Sabalenka is on a race against time. She introduces herself as being “24 years old already” and adding that she feels “old” at an age when most human beings would consider themselves to be at their prime.

“My ambition was to win a Grand Slam and to finish the year as world No. 1,” Sabalenka tells Netflix cameras late in 2022. “But now I’m in the end of the season. There is zero titles in my pocket.”

On Episode 10 (“One Last Chance”), Break Point begins its season finale by rewinding back to the start of the season, showing viewers a recap of Sabalenka and top American Taylor Fritz’s roads to the WTA Finals and Nitto ATP Finals, respectively.

“Kudos to her to get to the Finals here,” WTA legend Martina Navratiova says of Sabalenka in a confessional. “Because this year, she was a mess.”

Last year, Sabalenka dealt with mental demons on the court—she started 2022 with an abysmal double fault record due to a case of “the yips”—and the stress of current events off of it, as her country Belarus joined Russia in an invasion of Ukraine in February. Ten episodes deep and through the lens of Sabalenka, Break Point addressed the ongoing war and its effect on players from the region for the first time.

“I felt like everyone hate me because of my country,” said Sabalenka, amid tears after her third-round exit from Roland Garros and having also been banned from competing at Wimbledon. “Now everyone is watching me fucking lose it… I don’t even want to play tennis anymore.”

But as Break Point continued to peel back the layers, Sabalenka revealed the source for her motivation to improve and fight her way back into the winners’ circle: a vow she had made to her father Sergey, who passed away suddenly at the age of 43.

“I lost my father four years ago. We had one dream: that before 25 I will win a couple of Grand Slams,” Sabalenka revealed. “And when he passed away, I started thinking too much about it.

“Now I’m 24 and there is zero in my pocket. I feel like I just put so much pressure on myself.”

That pressure would ultimately be what kept her going through a roller-coaster 2022 season, as she became the seventh player out of eight to qualify for the WTA Finals in Fort Worth. And in a bittersweet conclusion to the year, Sabalenka fought her way into the championship match but fell in straight sets to Caroline Garcia.

A fitting focus for the series’ finale, Sabalenka’s bubbly personality shines through despite the setbacks, and she provides much-needed levity during an otherwise heavy episode. Taking viewers inside player areas, Netflix cameras captured delightful player moments including Sabalenka advising WTA Finals rival Ons Jabeur on her hair for the evening, as well as Sabalenka’s initial reaction to learning her next opponent would be world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Still 24 at the end of filming, Sabalenka grins through a cheerful Break Point sign-off that would become prophetic: “Next season it’s my year, guys!”

Sabalenka would ultimately keep her promise to her late father Sergey. After the season 1 finale, Sabalenka went on to clinch her long-awaited first Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open and return to a career-high ranking of WTA world No. 2, having been previously ranked No. 1 in doubles back in 2021. She is now the proud owner of three Grand Slam titles—one in singles and two in doubles—and has climbed to the top of the rankings, all before the age of 25.

This year she also solidified herself as a part of the WTA’s new “Big Three”—along with Swiatek and Elena Rybakina—as the trio have so far swept both Grand Slams and a bulk of the WTA 500 and 1000-level titles, and turned 25 in May.