It wasn’t Aryna Sabalenka’s day as she did not match Martina Hingis’ document of three consecutive Australian Open titles. The World No. 1 crumbled to a 3-6, 6-2, 5-7 defeat towards Madison Keys, who claimed her maiden Grand Slam title. Previous to the ultimate, Sabalenka had dropped just one set throughout her marketing campaign. However the summit conflict started with loads of errors from the Belarusian and her service sport was below-par.
Aryna Sabalenka reacts throughout the ultimate towards Madison Keys.(REUTERS)
She did handle to stage a comeback within the second set, however the errors got here again within the decider as she crashed to a defeat, and broke down. Whereas Keys was celebrating, Sabalenka smashed her racquet after which additionally lined her face along with her towel, whereas sobbing on her chair. Then she merely acquired up, picked her bag, and left for the locker room.
Aryna Sabalenka explains her behaviour
Then later, she was introduced again for the closing ceremony, and gave the impression to be in higher management of her feelings as she congratulated Keys. In the course of the post-match press convention in Melbourne, Sabalenka was requested about her on-court meltdown after shedding. She mentioned, “There definitely was a bit of frustration because I was so close to achieve something crazy.”
“When you’re out there, you’re fighting, but it seems like everything going not the way you really want to go.
“I just needed to throw those negative emotions at the end just so I could give a speech, not stand there being disrespectful. I was just trying to let it go and be a good person, be respectful. It’s okay. I mean, I’m the one who knows that after tough losses, there is good wins. So I’ll keep working and make sure that next time, if I’ll be in this situation, I’ll definitely play better,” she added.
Defined why she walked off earlier than the closing ceremony, she revealed that she wanted a while to ‘switch off’. “Yeah, that was tough. I just needed that time for myself to like switch off and forget and leave it in the best and be respectful, not be – I don’t know,” she mentioned.
“I just wanted to be respectful. I just needed to throw those stuff out and needed some time with myself. Yeah, that’s definitely really tough. I was standing there and just was like: ‘Okay, c’mon, you’ve been in her position. She deserves that. She was better player than you’. Just, you know, it was tough,” she added.
Sabalenka is a three-time Grand Slam champion, which additionally contains the 2023 and 2024 Australian Open titles.