Aryna Sabalenka Is "Searching"
After a brutal loss at the French Open, top-ranked Sabalenka opened up about trying to "dig deep" to find answers inside her head.
BERLIN, Germany — As is the case most years, there’s a stacked draw here at WTA 500 Berlin. Fittingly, the first player I spoke to here was the woman at the very top of the rankings.
Aryna Sabalenka is currently in her 95th week at the WTA No. 1 ranking, including 87 weeks in a row.
Sabalenka’s reign has been a fascinating mix of dominance and vulnerability. She’s had an iron grip on that top spot, but she’s only won one of the six majors held during her current run at No. 1.
Sabalenka’s reliability in making it deep at majors is well known, but her recent quarterfinal loss at Roland Garros was shocking, losing 10 games in a row to Diana Shnaider and crashing out of a match she was seemingly controlling.
On Monday at her pre-tournament media availability in Berlin, her first time speaking publicly since leaving Paris, I asked Sabalenka about that defeat, which she admitted was “tough to process.”
Sabalenka then gamely opened up about speaking with a psychologist in recent weeks to try to explore and understand why collapses like that can happen to her.
“I’m just trying to dig deep in my brain—which is probably not a good idea.” —Aryna Sabalenka
We also spoke about being willing to be vulnerable and to make changes despite being at the top of the sport. Lastly, we spoke about her relationship to grass, a surface on which she’s played well in her career but has not yet won any title.
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