With Aryna Sabalenka about to play for her 3rd Australian Open title in a row, clearly, she’s the player to beat. Over the last fortnight, some of her peers have spoken about just what it is that makes her such a challenge to play against.
Here’s what has been said during this year’s Australian Open.
“I think what’s really impressive is her mentality. I think her ability to kind of always go for it, no matter what the score is, is really impressive.
I mean, she plays such fearless tennis. She has the ability to play so well that way. I think it’s very unique. I think a lot of people, no matter what, even if it was a tight point, you kind of expect them to play a little bit more conservative or back down a little bit, and you know she’s not going to do that.
I think not only is that impressive on her side, but I think it puts a little bit more pressure on her opponents where you know you’re always going to have to try to win the point because she’s never going to just play passive and give you an easy point.”
Paula Badosa:
“With Aryna, it’s like winners everywhere. Sometimes, I’m just walking around the court because I feel like she’s playing a PlayStation. Today she was like that. So sometimes I’m like, ‘What’s happening?’ I don’t have time even to think.”
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova:
“She’s obviously more mature. You can tell. Mentally stronger, for sure. I think she could get frustrated a lot faster in the match. Also, her body language. Like, you could see she was frustrated before. I think this part she definitely improved a lot.
She was pretty calm. So I think that’s very strong from her.
She kept going and playing her game regardless the score. That’s always, like, a good sign of a champion and a good obviously athlete as a performance.”
Clara Tauson:
“She plays big on the bigger points.”
Jessica Pegula:
“She’s got a great serve. Before she used to have a big serve, but now much more control, much more consistent. That variable that you kind of hope would go off doesn’t really seem to go off as much anymore.
I think her movement’s gotten a lot better. Obviously she’s a super power player, can take the racquet out of your hands sometimes.
I’ve noticed she’s starting mixing in a lot more slices, dropshot, coming to the net. She’s really, really gotten a lot better as a player. I think that’s why you’re seeing these results. She’s improved a lot in a lot of different aspects.”
Daria Kasatkina:
“Honestly, she’s got the power. She’s moving now on court much better than few years ago. She’s now also very good in defense. She’s got more variety than before, and her serve goes 200 kilometers per hour. I mean, that’s tough. That’s tough.
To handle this attack during the whole match, I mean, it’s difficult. Plus, mentally she becomes very strong. Before she could have ups and downs. Now she’s much more stable.”
Iga Swiatek:
“I feel like she has a complete kind of technique, like pretty smooth. She’s just solid from every position on the court, even like volleys and stuff that we don’t use, like, that often on singles.
She has variety, and she can play flat, she can play topspin. Like, basically I would say that Aryna is a kind of complete player.”
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