On Monday, she defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the second round WTA Finals in Riyadh Jasmine Paolini 6:3, 7:5. And even though the Italian looked great in the second set, she had two set points that she failed to use. Sabalenka reached the heights of her abilities in the most important parts of the match. She made up for the loss again, showing great mental strength.
Again, because we remember what happened three weeks ago in the rank tournament WTA 1,000 in Wuhan. The Belarusian turned out to be the best in the Chinese event, but she had to overcome major problems along the way. First in match She lost the third round against Yulia Putintseva 1:6, 3:4. The tennis player born in Russia but representing Kazakhstan played the best match this year. Yet Sabalenka made up for the loss and won the second set 6:4 and the third to zero.
Putintseva and Gauff were so close
The fight with Putintseva was special for the athlete from Minsk. When she stepped onto the court, she was already aware that if she won the next Women's Tennis Organization ranking, she would overtake Iga Świątek and become the leader of the WTA federation again. This awareness could have created pressure, which – apart from Yulia Putintseva's excellent performance – was a factor that made the performance difficult. Nevertheless, even under these conditions, Aryna managed to tip the scales in her favor.
She encountered similar problems in the semi-finals in Wuhan – she lost to Coco Gauff 1:6, 2:4. The American had a breakthrough in the second set, she was just a hair's breadth away from defeating her rival. Sabalenka came back again, winning 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. What was it like to turn the tide in such an impressive way?
After the win over Putintseva, the Belarusian explained: “I just tried to calm down and remind myself to keep trying and fighting. I kept having this conversation in my head. I think it helped, that little quiet, that little chat with myself. Thanks to this, I started to move better on the court and make better decisions.”
At the beginning of last year, after winning in Australian Open Sabalenka admitted that she had given up psychological support. She then explained that during the preparatory period she had an honest conversation with her psychologist, expressing her willingness to deal with her emotions on her own. – Every time I hoped that someone else would solve my problems, it didn't work. I have to take this responsibility and deal with it myself, she explained. She added that each tennis player knows best whether and to what extent he needs similar help from a specialist at a given stage of his career.
Sabalenka has won 22 of the last 23 matches played. The only defeat was the quarterfinal in Beijing against Karolina Muchowa, who has the right to play against the Belarusian. In the remaining matches, even when she had worse moments, Sabalenka was able to overcome them. This can be very disturbing for her opponents, because it is simply becoming more and more difficult to believe that she is on the court to beat. And if her rivals, when going against Aryna, do not believe that they can beat her, the tennis player from Minsk will gain a huge advantage in the competition.
Comparable to the one enjoyed by Iga Świątek in the spring of 2022, when she recorded a series of 37 victories in a row. Shelf She didn't play perfectly in every match, but other players at that time also lost faith that they could win after the controversy with Iga Świątek.
She's starting to look like Iga Świątek
Additionally, just like the Pole back then, the Belarusian woman has the right to believe in her own abilities even more today. If she is 1:6, 3:4 or 1:6, 2:4 and against the world's top tennis players, why wouldn't she believe until the last ball that every match can be reversed in terms of the result? This makes Aryna Sabalenka even more dangerous for her opponents. You have to maintain the highest level until the very end and not give up even for a moment. Otherwise, Sabalenka can always find a way to make up for the break loss(s).
This year, the Belarusian played 12 matches in which she was the first to lose a set. In as many as eight cases, she won such a match with a 2:1 ratio in games. She recorded equally successful statistics in this field last season: 6-2. This means that the score of 0:1 in sets does not give her opponents any guarantee that Sabalenka is already broken, will not get back up, and the task is becoming easier. It seems to be quite the opposite – we need to be even more careful with the current leader of the ranking.