Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka is making waves with her consistent showings on the WTA circuit. The current World No.5 won her first singles Grand Slam final at the 2023 Australian Open. While her tennis has been noticed and applauded, fans have also spotted the ink on her left forearm. What is the tale of its origination and motivation?

The Belarusian tennis player once revealed the story behind her tattoo in an interview with the Tennis Channel in 2019. Sabalenka has a Tiger tattooed on her arm, reflecting her aggressive attitude while playing tennis.

Talking about her tattoo, Aryna Sabalenka said: I think I was 18 years old and my parents didn’t know about this tattoo. And when they saw it the first time my dad was laughing, I don’t know why, but my mom didn’t talk to me for one week. And then she said like ‘I hope it’s the first and the last one’ and I said ‘look yeah mama it’s the first one and the last one’ and then I turned around I said ‘hopefully,’ but she didn’t hear that.” 

She continued, “I don’t know, I just make it… Sometimes in the court, to remind me that you need to fight for each point.”

Aryna Sabalenka spoke about how she uses the tattoo to remind herself of tigers

Aryna Sabalenka was born in 1998, which was also the year of Tiger. This also added to the explanation of her having a tattoo of a Tiger. In November 2020, she spoke about her ink.

“So it’s nothing special. I was born year of tiger and sometimes on the court I need to remind myself of them tigers and I have to fight till the end and I just put it on my arm, make sure I can see it all the time, and be on fire.”

How Many Tattoos Does Aryna Sabalenka Have?

Aryna Sabalenka’s 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 win over Elena Rybakina at the Rod Laver Arena saw her lift the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and win her first singles Grand Slam title. Once the new WTA rankings are out, she will re-ascend to her career-best ranking of number 2 in the world.

What did you make of Sabalenka’s words about her tattoo? Let us know.

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