Aryna Sabalenka has established herself as one of the fastest rising stars on the WTA tour in 2018. The 20-year-old has settled into the Top 20 after starting the year at No. 73.

With her first WTA Premier final showing this weekend in Wuhan, Sabalenka will, at least, rise to a new high of No. 17.

She first made a name for herself as the young player who lost to Maria Sharapova in the Tianjin final. Shortly after, representing Belarus in the Fed Cup final, she scored a three-set win over Sloane Stephens, and fought her heart out all weekend long (Belarus ultimately lost to the U.S.).

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Sabalenka followed that with an WTA $125K title in Mumbai. To start 2018, she flew under the radar but then things started to turn when she reached her second WTA final in Lugano, pushing her ranking inside the Top 50 for the first time. She'd reach a bigger final soon after, on grass at the Premier level in Eastbourne.

Just ahead of her big run in Eastbourne, she started working with former Top 20 player Dmitry Tursnovov.

"Before I was hitting every ball just as hard as I can. After I start work with Dmitry, he explained, You don't need to do it all the time. Sometimes it's only to put three balls in. With your speed, it's enough," Sabalenka said this week. "Well, I think this thing start work with me."

All of that made for some great progress, but she was far from done. Hitting her stride in the hard-court season, the Belarusian powered to the semifinals in Cincinnati with wins over three Top 15 players (Madison Keys, Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Garcia).

She then won her first WTA title in New Haven before becoming the only player in New York to win a set off eventual champion Naomi Osaka (in her first major fourth round, no less).

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"Her life has been a whirlwind recently," Tursnov told the WTA in a feature interview. ""We have to essentially be the moon boots, keep her down to the ground. It's probably one of the bigger dangers for someone like that because it's insane how quickly that bandwagon filled up."

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That bandwagon is only going to get more full. Sabalenka will be seeking her biggest career title against fellow unseeded player Anett Kontaveit on Saturday.