Aryna Sabalenka is the no-doubt-about-it No. 1. So where does she go from here?

Looking back, looking forward. With the 2024 WTA season in the books, Joel Drucker has nine notable storylines to consider over the next few weeks—before the next year of women's tennis begins. (On mobile devices, scroll down to read more WTA takeways; on desktop, you'll see additional entires on the left side of your screen.)

It doesn’t seem too long ago that Aryna Sabalenka played streaky tennis, and was frequently more at the mercy of her emotions than in control of them. But over the last three years, match by match and month by month, Sabalenka has learned to concurrently stay cool under pressure, deploy her forceful groundstrokes and also incorporate traces of variety.

Her 2024 season was masterful, bracketed by title runs at the hardcourt majors in Melbournen and New York. Skipping Wimbledon and the Olympics to recover from an injury also aided Sabalenka’s rise to No. 1.

“Looking back, it was an important moment for me to just sit back, recharge my batteries,” Sabalenka said during the WTA Finals. “Do great recovery, make sure my shoulder is healed so I can come back stronger. After that little pause, I was super, super hungry for tennis.”

There’s little doubt that Sabalenka, already having reached the semis at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, has what it takes to do even better on clay and grass.