Aryna Sabalenka's 2026 season began on 4 January with a title at the Brisbane International, defeating Marta Kostyuk, before she reached her fourth consecutive Australian Open final—a feat only Martina Hingis had achieved—though she ultimately lost to Elena Rybakina. The season's highlight was her historic Sunshine Double, winning Indian Wells (over Rybakina) and defending her Miami Open title (over Coco Gauff), making her the fifth woman and the first player ever (male or female) to complete this in both singles and doubles. She also became the third woman after Hingis and Steffi Graf to reach seven straight hard-court major finals, broke Novak Djokovic's record for consecutive Grand Slam tiebreaks won (20), and held the world No. 1 ranking for 104 weeks. Despite a stellar 40–8 overall match record, her clay-court campaign faltered with early exits in Madrid and Rome after withdrawing from Stuttgart due to injury, ending her streak of 17 consecutive WTA quarterfinals.