Tennis - US Open 2024 - Aryna Sabalenka, her secret : "You have to try to enjoy life"
Aryna Sabalenka est sans doute LA favorite de cet US Open 2024. La Biélorusse avait réussi sa première semaine en finissant avec un succès contre Ekaterina Alexandrova, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Ce dimanche, la numéro 2 mondiale a encore montré beaucoup d'autorité contre son amie Elise Mertens en huitièmes, 6-2, 6-4. Désormais, en dix duels, Sabalenka a battu neuf fois la Belge. En quarts, la numéro 2 mondiale se frottera à la championne olympique Qinwen Zheng. La Biélorusse a dominé la Chinoise à l'US Open 2023 et l'Open d'Australie 2024. Depuis, Zheng a toutefois changé de dimension...
Vidéo : @USOpen
Vidéo : @USOpen
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00:00Yeah, I'm super happy to win this match. It was a really tough match, especially in the
00:09second set. She stepped in and she started to play a little bit better than the first
00:14set, so I'm really glad I was able to finish this match in straight sets.
00:20Thank you. Questions? David.
00:21Hi, Irina. David Cain, Tennis.com. You know Elisa very well. You played doubles together,
00:26and you were striking a lot of winners tonight. I'm curious if there's something about her
00:29ball that's maybe in your strike zone and is very comfortable?
00:33Well, I wouldn't say that her rhythm is really comfortable for me, but yeah, I know her quite
00:41well and we played a lot of great battles against each other. It's never easy facing
00:48her. She's a really tricky opponent, and I know that she's going to fight and she's going
00:53to try to find something to keep fighting, keep pushing. So it's never easy facing her,
01:00but I was just trying to stay aggressive and I was just trying to put her under so much
01:05pressure tonight, so I got a shorter ball to finish the point. But yeah, that match
01:16wasn't an easy one.
01:18Courtney Nguyen, WTA. Congrats, Irina.
01:23Four straight quarterfinals here in New York. I mean, what do you think has been the secret
01:28to your consistent success? I mean, I know you're a great hardcourt player, but this
01:33is the last slam of the year. Players are tired. There's a lot of reasons why things
01:36could go wrong here. What do you think is the reason for your success?
01:40I don't know. I really enjoy playing here. The crowd are amazing. I really enjoy playing
01:45on these big stadiums, feel all the support. I just don't want to leave early here. I just
01:51want to stay as long as I can and enjoy this beautiful court, beautiful atmosphere. And
01:58I think that's why I kind of like consistency. Wait, wait. Consistency here. No. Consistently
02:10here. Yeah. Oh my God. It's not that late, but my brain is not working right now. Maybe
02:17I, you know, like it's hitting a little bit later.
02:24How are you different, would you say, as a player, sort of mentally, physically, tactically
02:33than a year ago here?
02:36Well, definitely I improved a lot. And that final match, there was really tough lesson
02:47in that final match. And the whole preseason I was working a lot on the variation of my
02:53game, make sure I can come to the net, make sure I can use my touch, slice, drop shots
02:59and all that stuff. I think that's really helpful. And I think I improved a lot. And
03:03mentally, I think since last year, I'm much stronger. So many things happen. So I think
03:13yeah, I think I improved in in lots of different ways.
03:17Reem.
03:18Hi, Reem from The National. Congrats. You just mentioned now you're mentally tougher.
03:26If you had to pinpoint the most important mental health tip or any trick that you learned
03:34from all the work that you've done on your mind, what would it be?
03:38It's a good question. I cannot come up with something right now, but I would definitely
03:42say that the main thing to stay mentally healthy is to be surrounded by the right people. You
03:48know, when you feel all the support, when you feel that your back is covered, that's
03:52the main thing, you know. And you know that whatever is going to happen in your life,
03:57you have people who's going to support you, who's going to stand with you and who's going
04:03to be there with you. I think that's the most important part. And another trick is try to
04:11enjoy, you know, enjoy the journey. You know, you work hard on court, you fight for it,
04:16but then you have, like on the big tournaments, you have a day off. So you have to enjoy that
04:23day. You have to completely separate yourself from tennis. I mean, of course, you do like
04:28your practice session, but after that, just like go for a good dinner. Just enjoy your
04:35free time, you know, and try not to, not like try not to think anyway, that's how it's going
04:40to be there, but just try to enjoy your life, you know.
04:43I know it's easy, and it's not easy at the same time. I think it all comes with experience,
04:50with all these tough losses, with all these tough lessons and big wins, and it's just
04:57all comes with experience.
05:00Smash.
05:02Akif, Smash Magazine. So you said you made a big progress and you did try slices and
05:10coming to the net, but when you are trying to learn something new, don't you have any
05:16like fear or are you not afraid of maybe learning new things make your tennis, your play style
05:24a little bit different or maybe you can lose some like touches or something like that?
05:32I mean, it's not like if I'm learning something, I'm forgetting to practice the rest of my
05:37game, you know, like when I'm learning something, I'm not spending like the whole practice on
05:41learning. I'm just spending a little amount on something new on things which I think going
05:47to help me in some ways on court. And then it's all about trying those things in the
05:54right moments and gain this confidence that you can do all this stuff you've been working
06:02on. So I don't know. I don't have fear that I'm going to lose my game, you know, like
06:08muscle memory is there. I know that I have it. And even even if things can go wrong with
06:14the whatever me over trying to do to go for new stuff I learned, I know that I can always
06:20come back to the to the game, to my, you know, like to my how to say basic basic game.
06:30A couple years ago, when you were struggling with the servant stuff, I know that you tried
06:35to play through it, biomechanical expert, all these sort of things. I'm curious, what
06:40at what point does it did it click at what point? Because I know part of it was mental.
06:45Part of it was maybe mechanical. But what can you pinpoint the moment? Like, how do
06:50you how do you get that shot back?
06:53I like two years ago, I started to work with the biomechanics guy in Cincinnati, I believe.
07:03And already in Cincinnati, things are start working quite well. And then at the US Open,
07:09I was kind of like brave enough to go for those kind of like at that moment, uncomfortable
07:14source for me. I mean, like the second serve. I was I just told myself, OK, I just I got
07:21to go through it like I got to face this fear. I got to just serve and see what happens
07:26and let the player play an extra shot, you know, and I would say that at the US Open
07:34things are clicked like, you know, like I just played the match and I remember facing
07:37like huge, not huge. I remember facing just the fear of double faulting at the US Open.
07:43And I was like, OK, whatever. I mean, I made those double faults a lot, like a double fault,
07:48but whatever. It's nothing new for everybody. I'll just go for it. I have to face my fear.
07:54And I remember like I just made one serve and like I was facing probably break points
07:59or like important points, you know, like going for that second serve. That was quite a fear.
08:04And I was like, OK, I just got to go and see what happens. And I remember like I did it.
08:09I win. I won the point. I was like, hmm, this works. So I don't have to over serve every
08:14time and then like another time, another time. And that's how things kind of like get back,
08:21get back.
08:22You had a very late start in your last match, a very late finish. How tough was it out there
08:27and how what did you recover for this match today?
08:30Yeah, that was a really late start. Yeah, I don't know. You know, like when you play
08:39in like really deep stages of the tournament, you don't care about timing. I was like, OK,
08:44let's say it's like a morning practice if I'm like in Europe, you know, like whatever.
08:48I don't care. I just want to win and go home. And then I got back at 3 a.m., probably fall
08:54asleep at 4. And I was completely off. I just fall asleep, which is usually never happened
09:00like that. But I was able to get like eight hours of sleep. So I was I was OK, you know,
09:04like and I had late practice. I did treatment and yeah, I felt actually OK, even though
09:10like we played like three sets match, but it was like an hour and 20 or 30 minutes.
09:14So it wasn't that like physical much. So, yeah, I'm glad I'm glad I didn't play for
09:20like three hours and then like I don't know, I would probably come back at 5 a.m.
09:24Then it would be kind of like tricky. So, yeah, I the main thing that I'm really happy
09:30that I was able to sleep like eight hours, which is, you know, like not bad.
09:34Howard, last question.
09:36Irina, Howard Fendrich with the Associated Press. What is your favorite part?
09:41My entire was the question. I was like, what is that? My name really, I tell you what,
09:51what is your favorite part of playing on the hard courts as opposed to other services?
09:58Favorite. I mean, I think it's really giving me lots of benefits on my serve. I think that's
10:07the main main thing which works really well on hard court for me.