'You were so annoying!' - Don't mess with Aryna Sabalenka and don't forget to celebrate! - WTA Tour Finals diary
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Updated 05/11/2022 at 11:03 GMT
In her latest WTA Tour Finals diary Reem Abulleil discovers why Aryna Sabalenka was delighted with the entire crowd, except for one individual. Plus hearfrom her about the drama of the round-robin format and the nerves that can bring with it, and that's when you're just watching and not even playing! And Jessica Pegula explains why she's trying to get better at celebrating herself.
'She hasn't found a coach that has lasted' - Wilander on Raducanu
You don’t mess with Aryna Sabalenka!
World No.7 Aryna Sabalenka ended home hopes at the WTA Finals on Friday as she sent Jessica Pegula into elimination with a 6-3, 7-5 win over the American.
During her on-court interview with Andrew Krasny, the Belarusian jokingly called out a fan for being “annoying” during the match.
“Thanks everyone for your support, except from that guy… wait, wait, wait… Now you are sending me kisses but you were like so annoying. But anyway thanks, thanks for the great atmosphere,” she said with a laugh.
Apparently, a Pegula fan kept interrupting Sabalenka between serves and he didn’t get away with it.
Always remember, nothing gets past Aryna Sabalenka!
Round-robin drama
After staving off a late second-set comeback from Pegula to win her match in straights, Sabalenka had to endure a nerve-racking few hours before learning her fate in the tournament.
Sabalenka needed Maria Sakkari to win at least one set against Ons Jabeur in order to secure passage to the semi-finals in Fort Worth.
“This is the worst, I like both of them, they are good people and now I have to cheer for one of them just to get through the group,” Sabalenka said on the Tennis Channel set.
“I’ll just try to stay away from watching it, but it’s going to be tough.”
Sabalenka has had a difficult 2022 season that centred around some serious serving woes. She said the most important adjustment she made with the serve was making sure her ball toss was closer to her body.
As she waited to find out if she was still alive in the tournament, Sabalenka urged the crowd at Dickies Arena to keep their fingers crossed for her.
“I’m super happy that I was focused no matter what, I was focused on myself and on things that I have to do on court. And now I did everything that was under my control and I just leave it for the universe to maybe do something good for me, finally, this season,” she chuckled.
The universe – or more like Sakkari – delivered as Jabeur lost to the Greek in straight sets, sending Sabalenka into the final four.
Sakkari admits it was an unusual situation for her as well, knowing she had all this influence on the qualification chances of two good friends of hers.
“I think it was a very weird situation for all three of us. For me it was good I was through, but at the same time I had both players that are very good friends of mine just having a chance to make it. I just wanted to win the challenge, beating her, just playing another good match like the beginning,” said Sakkari.
No regrets for Pegula
The schedule in Fort Worth has been rough for Jessica Pegula, who had to play singles and doubles on the same day this week.
The world No.3 – in singles and doubles – went 0-6 in her matches, and noted how she probably hasn’t lost that many contests in the previous three months.
Still, she insists she has no regrets about playing both tournaments here at the WTA Finals.
“I don't regret it at all. But it definitely is a tough schedule when you're like playing at 5:00 and then playing second night match. I don't really think that was benefiting me in any way,” said Pegula.
“Obviously I didn't know that coming into this with the schedule would be. I know it'd be difficult playing both. But that obviously, I don't think was too much of a bonus as far as me feeling like I do now.
“But no, of course, I don't regret playing both. That was a goal that I wanted the whole year. So I'm glad I still accomplished that goal.”
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Jessica Pegula
Image credit: Getty Images
Don’t forget to celebrate
Death, taxes and tennis players vacationing in the Maldives…
“Basic, I know, so basic,” laughed Daria Kasatkina as she told reporters she was planning on returning to the Maldives for a third time for her offseason vacation.
“But I mean, in November, there is not many places you can go where you can, get a sunny and this lazy kind of vacation. So Maldives is one of the options, which is in the very beautiful place, very calm.”
Pegula is bucking the trend and will go to Napa with her husband and friends to celebrate her breakthrough season.
“I've always wanted to go. I've never been. I'm not like a huge wine person but I would love to learn more. So I felt like that was a good spot. Some of our friends wanted to go as well. It’s in the States, so it's not too far away. I didn't want to go anywhere out of the country.”
Tennis is an unrelenting sport with barely any time for a player to celebrate a good week or bounce back from a bad one. It’s back-to-back and unforgiving, which is why, it’s important for a player to hit the pause button every one in a while and acknowledge they’ve had a strong showing somewhere and that it’s worth celebrating.
Pegula enjoyed the biggest success of her career by winning Guadalajara last week but suddenly finds herself leaving Fort Worth with six losses from six singles and doubles matches. These past few days should not stop her from raising a glass or two in honour of her brilliant 2022 campaign.
“I feel like my friends are usually the ones that do a good job of that. I'm not one to really celebrate myself too much or like the attention on me,” said the American No.1.
“But I think all your friends are like your hype people. So they’re definitely like, 'No, we're gonna celebrate and drink tons of wine in Napa and it's going to be a total celebration of your awesome year'.
“It's one of those things where tennis, it's just rough. You have one good week, one bad week and people forget really easily and or don't remember you winning and they just see your loss next week.
“So it's hard. So I think as tennis players we do need to celebrate. Because the journey is now. So it's all the stuff that's happening right now; there is really no end-to-end goal. I feel like every, usually top athlete always says the dream is the journey, not like the end result. It's hard to maintain that mindset all the time. But I think as long as you kind of come back to that and try to celebrate the small goals as much as you can I think that keeps it healthy.
“But yeah, sometimes we forget.”
Quote of the day
“We’ve known each other for many years, we were talking at the draw ceremony and said that we played each other a few years ago in Fed Cup and I was joking with her that she was dropshotting me all the time. We were playing in Montenegro, like Group III stage, there was nobody there, we were two just normal players back then but we’ve both worked our way to the top. She deserves everything she has achieved this season, she has been doing exceptional things. I’m pretty sure back home everyone is proud, the African continent is very proud of her, the Middle East as well, but all over the world, what she has achieved is just very unique. She’s an amazing player and it’s great to have players like her on the tour.”
-- A gracious Sakkari with some heartfelt words for Tunisia’s Jabeur after their match.
Stats of the day
- Sabalenka has now won 10 career matches against top-five opposition. She has lost 12.
- Sakkari has now triumphed in a career-best 40 matches this season.
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