Tennis - Toronto 2024 - Aryna Sabalenka : "To be honest, I probably feel better on clay than on hard"
Aryna Sabalenka, n°3 mondiale, a préféré zapper les Jeux Olympiques de Paris 2024 et se concentrer sur la tournée américaine sur dur. Demi-finaliste du WTA 500 de Washington, elle espère remporter le WTA 1000 de Toronto cette semaine. Tête de série n°2 au Canada derrière Coco Gauff, la Biélorusse aura un premier tour tranquille face à l'Espagnole Cristina Bucsa ou la Chinoise Yue Yuan. Passée en conférence de presse ce mercredi, la joueuse de 26 ans a fait une déclaration surprenante avant son entrée en lice.
Vidéo : @TennisCanada
Vidéo : @TennisCanada
Transcript
00:00I mean, I feel really, really happy to be back.
00:07It's a really beautiful tournament and I miss Toronto.
00:11And yeah, I play Washington after the injury and, I mean, I would say I didn't play my
00:17best there, but I guess I just needed those matches to get back on track and, yeah, I'm
00:25doing everything I can to bring better tennis here in Toronto than there in Washington.
00:29You had some really great results on the clay, which I think it's probably fair to say is
00:33not your best surface.
00:34Now you're back on the hard courts, which is your best surface.
00:37How are you taking the confidence from those good results into a part of the season where
00:41normally you do quite well?
00:42I love to play on clay court.
00:43I don't know why people think that this is not my best surface.
00:46Probably I feel better on clay than on hard, to be honest.
00:49But yeah, result-wise, I'm better on hard court.
00:53But yeah, I mean, clay court is different tennis, it's longer rallies, you need to build
00:57a point, you need to finish the point, and it's definitely a good thing for the hard
01:03court where the points become shorter and faster, and probably physically you're better
01:10after clay court because after playing such long rallies you feel much better playing
01:16on hard court.
01:17So I guess that's what I'm taking from the clay court result is my physical ability probably
01:25better.
01:27Next question.
01:31Hi, Rina.
01:32With your current form, many are expecting big things from you here in Toronto.
01:37How do you manage those expectations, and how do you keep your focus match by match?
01:43I mean, that's not my expectation, that's someone else's expectations, and I guess I'm
01:49willing not to think about that, and I'm just trying to focus on myself, and yes, I know
01:54that if I'll be able to bring my best tennis, I know that I can, yeah, I can do really great
02:03on the tournament, so I'm just trying to focus on myself and on bringing my best tennis every
02:08time I'm on the court.