The best of all

Aryna Sabalenka is second to none again

Starting the tennis season with big wins is a wonderful and pleasant tradition in all aspects. Once established by Victoria Azarenka in 2012-2013, it was picked up by Aryna Sabalenka who continues to carry the banner of Belarusian tennis high. Last January, Aryna won the first Grand Slam title of her career becoming the Australian Open champion. In this year’s tournament, Sabalenka won even in a more confident and spectacular manner.

 Aryna Sabalenka  REUTERS                                                                   

Aleksandr Lukashenko congratulated the athlete on her triumph on the courts of Melbourne.
“Accept my congratulations on your confident defence of the Australian Open title. Winning the Grand Slam tournament is a huge personal achievement, a matter of national pride, a great incentive and example for thousands of children in Belarus and around the world. I thank all those involved in this triumph. I wish you good health and new successes,” the congratulatory message reads.

In the final, Aryna Sabalenka did not experience any big problems defeating Chinese Zheng Qinwen, who reached a Grand Slam final for the first time, easily in straight sets — 6:3, 6:2. Thus, in seven matches of the tournament, the second racket of the world did not give away a single set to her opponents and finished two matches with obvious superiority (6:0, 6:1 and 6:0, 6:0). Only in the semifinal meeting with American Coco Gauff, Sabalenka allowed her opponent to take more than four games in one set (7:6, 6:4). Complete and utter domination!   


Zheng Qinwen     REUTERS  

Sabalenka, along with Serbian Novak Djokovic, are undoubtedly the brightest and most charismatic participants of the tour. Over the past season, Aryna managed to stabilize her game, cope with emotions, become more mature and reach a new level. This looks promising in terms of regaining the title of the first racket of the world and keeping it for a much longer period than it happened last season. She is now far from being an impatient and restless tiger cub who first made herself known to the tennis elite back in October 2017 at the Tianjin tournament in China. Then, the 19-year-old girl was very close to beating magnificent Maria Sharapova in the final — Aryna led 5-1 in the deciding set but somehow ended up losing. Since then, Sabalenka has treated both her fans and detractors with such incredible swings and sincere emotions many times, which has become her trademark and made her stand out from others. Yet, now the tiger cub has grown up and turned into a real tigress that is almost impossible to defeat. 
Aryna Sabalenka’s friendly international team that helps her achieve success includes two Belarusians. Novice coach Anton Dubrov, who took over as a mentor after Aryna had parted ways with Russian specialist Dmitry Tursunov, is growing in this position together with Aryna. His words after the triumph in Melbourne reveal one of the many secrets of victory, “There is nothing more important than what we are doing now. We try to implement this idea in training, in conversations. No matter how you feel — maybe your batteries are only working at 40 percent and you can’t run — well, let’s do it at least at the highest possible level.” Sabalenka’s sparring partner is Andrei Vasilevsky. This is not a Russian hockey superstar and the world’s best goalkeeper from Tampa — that is his full namesake — but a Belarusian guy, a former tennis player. Andrei has always been a team player, having achieved major success in doubles, where he reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals and was in the top 100 of the world ranking. 
These are the ones who are in sight now. However, Aryna Sabalenka’s current achievements would not have been possible without her father who passed away before time, when Aryna was just 21. It was he who brought the future champion to tennis. Nor would they have been possible without the first coach, Elena Vergeenko, daughter of a famous football goalkeeper, USSR champion in 1982 as part of Dinamo Minsk, Mikhail Vergeenko. Nor without many others who, at some point of her career, participated in the life and preparation of the current world tennis prima. And certainly, without the state as a whole, which gave Aryna Sabalenka a launching pad, an opportunity for development and growth. One would agree that this is also an important thing to remember and be grateful to the native country. Happy victory and keep it up!

24 hours and reflections

At the Australian Open, Russian Daniil Medvedev became the first tennis player who played 31 sets at a single Grand Slam tournament. Moreover, he spent more than one day on the court — more precisely, 24 hours and 17 minutes. Obviously, such a frantic pace (one day he even played a match until four o’clock in the morning!) affected his physical condition in the end. Medvedev lost in the final to Italian Jannik Sinner despite leading by two sets — 6:3, 6:3, 4:6, 4:6, 3:6. 
The final with Sinner is the fourth five-set match for the Russian at the last Australian major. He previously played similar matches with Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz and Alexander Zverev from Germany.
By the way, the men’s final match became the 35th five-set match at the last tournament. This figure is an Open Era record along with the 1983 US Open.