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Can Aryna Sabalenka Ride Her Hot Streak to the Australian Open Title?

David Moir/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After spending 2018 rapidly ascending the global tennis ranks, Aryna Sabalenka decided to spend some of her brief off-season in free fall. So during a winter visit to Dubai, Sabalenka said, she took the opportunity to bungee jump from 41 floors up.

“These three seconds before you jump, it’s like something unbelievable,” Sabalenka, a 20-year-old Belarusian, said in a recent telephone interview. “You want to cry, smile and laugh.”

The daring off-season activity underscored the intensity and cheerfulness that came to define Sabalenka as she burst onto the scene last year, winning her first two WTA titles.