Sabalenka’s heartbreaking confession: “I’m emotional, in Madrid I destroyed a racket”

At the media day of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Aryna Sabalenka shared some information about her private life that surprised her fans. The Belarusian tennis player has grown above all on a mental level, in her ability to manage moments and defeats. Maturation completed the last year.

“I’m still emotional. The last time I lost, in the final in Madrid, I destroyed a racket, that’s how emotional I am. Even when I was a child I cried, I was angry. There were many different emotions. What I learned about the past is just the momentum. Yes, now you have lost, but you have thousands of opportunities to win. You have to accept defeat and move forward, work and try to improve next time. If you get to those stages, the last stages of the tournaments, it’s impossible to win them all. Sometimes you just need to lose to learn something. Then maybe in bigger tournaments or more important ones, you will remember the lesson and do better in the final. It’s all a process,” she expained.

Aryna Sabalenka© Julian Finney / Staff Getty Images Sport

After the efforts in Madrid and the defeat in the spectacular final against Iga Swiatek, Sabalenka immediately overcame the disappointment, celebrating her 26th birthday and flying to Rome for the next seasonal match. Another tournament in which to give life to further chapters of the three-way rivalry with Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, currently the dominators of the WTA Tour. In the last edition, Sabalenka surrendered against Sofia Kenin and, this year, the objective is certainly that to do better. At the press conference, the Belarusian commented on the Madrid final and her growth on clay, also speaking about her relationship with Swiatek. The two-time Slam champion analyzed the spectacular final act of the tournament in the Spanish capital.

“There are a lot of positives from Madrid. I recovered. I found my game again. I got everything back on track and started playing at a high level. I fought a couple of very tough battles against high-level players and got some victories.
I was close to winning another title. But it happened the way it happened. Obviously Iga is much better than me on clay, for example. I would say Elena is better on grass. Maybe I’m a little better on hard. At the same time I can’t say that it’s all about the surface. As time shows, I can beat them on clay, on hard, on grass. It’s honestly a couple of key moments in each game where they probably played better. You learn from the little mistakes you made during the match, then you work on them and try to improve,” she told.

Aryna Sabalenka© Julian Finney / Staff Getty Images Sport

Speaking about the rivalry with Swiated, Sabalenka said: “Maybe we are more consistent, we are playing more consistently than the others in the last two years. But I would say that in tennis anyone can beat anyone. The important thing is to be focused, do your own thing, not think about all these ranking situations. I focus on myself and make sure that every time I step on the court I give my best and I hope to still be among the top three players.”