US OPEN

September 1, 2024

Aryna Sabalenka

Press Conference

A. SABALENKA/E. Mertens

6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: If you would, your thoughts on your win.

ARYNA SABALENKA: I'm super happy to win this match. It was really tough match, especially in the second set. She step in, and she started to play a little bit better than the first set.

I'm really glad that I was able to finish this match in straight sets.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You know Elise very well. You play doubles together. You were striking a lot of winners tonight. Is there something about her ball that's maybe in your strike zone and is very comfortable?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Well, I wouldn't say that her return was really comfortable for me, but yeah, I know her quite well, and we played a lot of great battles against each other.

It's never easy facing her. She's really tricky opponent, and I know that she's going to fight, and she's going to try to find something to keep fighting, keep pushing.

So it's never easy facing her, but I was just trying to stay aggressive. I was just trying to put her under so much pressure tonight so I get -- how do you say? -- shorter ball to finish the points.

But, yeah, that match wasn't an easy one.

Q. Four straight quarterfinals here in New York. What do you think has been the secret to your consistent success? I mean, I know you're a great hard court player, but this is the last slam of the year. Players are tired. There's a lot of reasons why things could go wrong here. What do you think is the reason for your success?

ARYNA SABALENKA: I don't know. I really enjoy playing here. The crowd are amazing. I really enjoying playing on these big stadiums, feel all the support.

I just don't want to leave early here, you know. I just want to stay as long as I can and enjoy this beautiful court, beautiful atmosphere. I think that's why I kind of like consistent -- wait -- consistent here. No. Consistently here. Yeah. Oh, my God, it's not that late, but my brain is not working right now.

Q. You had a late night the other night.

ARYNA SABALENKA: Maybe, yeah. Like, it's hitting a little bit later.

Q. How are you different, would you say, as a player sort of mentally, physically, tactically than a year ago here?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Well, definitely I improved a lot, and that final match there was really tough lesson in that final match. The whole preseason I was working a lot on the variation of my game, make sure I can come to the net, make sure I can use my touch, slice, drop shots, and all that stuff. I think that's really helpful, and I think I improved a lot.

Mentally I think since last year I'm much stronger. So many things happened. Yeah, I think I improved in lots of different ways.

Q. You just mentioned now you're mentally tougher. If you had to pinpoint the most important mental health tip or any trick that you learned from all the work that you've done on your mind, what would it be?

ARYNA SABALENKA: It's a good question. I cannot come up with something right now, but I would definitely say that the main thing to stay mentally healthy is to be surrounded by the right people, you know? When you feel all the support, when you feel that your back is covered, that's the main thing.

You know that whatever what going to happen in your life you have people who's going to support you, who's going to stand with you, and who's going to be there with you. I think that's the most important part.

Another trick is try to enjoy. You know, enjoy the journey. You work hard on court. You fight for it, but then you have -- like on the big tournaments, you have a day off. So you have to enjoy that day. You have to completely separate yourself from tennis.

Of course, you do like your practice session, but after that just, like, go for a good dinner, just enjoy your free time, you know, and try not to -- not like try not to think. Anyway the thought is going to be there, but just try to enjoy your life.

I know it's easy and it's not easy at the same time. I think it all comes with experience. With all this tough losses, with all this tough lessons, and big wins, it's just all comes with experience.

Q. You said you made a big progress and you did try slices and coming to the net, but when you are trying to learn something new, don't you have any fear, or are you not afraid of maybe learning new things make your play style a little bit, you know, different or maybe you can lose some, like, touches or something like that?

ARYNA SABALENKA: I mean, it's not like if I'm learning something, I'm forgetting to practice the rest of my game. You know, when I'm learning something, I'm not spending like the whole practice on learning. I'm just spending little amount on something new and on things which I think are going to help me in some ways on court.

Then it's all about trying those things in the right moments and gain this confidence that you can do all this stuff you've been working on. So, I don't know, I don't have fear that I'm going to lose my game. Muscle memory is there. I know that I have it.

Even if things going to go wrong with whatever, me overtrying to go for new stuff I learned, I know that I can always come back to the game, like, to my -- how to say? -- basic game, yeah.

Q. A couple of years ago when you were struggling with the serve and stuff I know you tried to play through it, biomechanical expert, all these sort of things. I'm curious, at what point did it click? At what point -- I know part of it was mental, part of it was maybe mechanical, but can you pinpoint the moment? How do you get that shot back?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Like two years ago I started to work with a biomechanic guy in Cincinnati, I believe. Already in Cincinnati things are start working quite well, and then at the US Open I was kind of brave enough to go for those kind of, like, at that moment uncomfortable serves for me. Like the second serve.

I just told myself, okay, I just got to go through it. Like, I got to face this fear. I got to just serve and see what happens and let the player play an extra shot, you know.

I would say that at the US Open things clicked. I just played the match, and I remember facing, like, huge -- not huge. I remember facing just the fear of double faulting at the US Open. I was, like, Okay, whatever. I mean, I made those double faults a lot. Like, I double fault, whatever. It's nothing new for everybody. I'll just go for it, and I have to face my fear.

I remember I just made one serve. Like, I was facing probably break points or like important points, you know, like going for that second serve. There was quite a fear.

I was, like, okay, I just got to go and see what happens. I remember, like, I did it. I won the point. I was, like, Hmm, this works, so I don't have to overserve every time. Then another time, another time, and that's how things kind of, like, get back.

Q. You had a very late start in your last match, a very late finish. How tough was it out there? What did you do to recover for this match today?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Yeah, that was really late start (laughing). Yeah. I don't know. You know, when you play in really deep stages of the tournaments, you don't care about timing.

I was, like, okay, let's say it's morning practice if I'm, like, in Europe. Like, whatever, I don't care (laughing). I just want to win and go home.

Then I got back at 3:00 a.m., probably fall asleep at 4:00, and I was completely off. I just fall asleep, which usually never happen like that, but I was able to get, like, eight hours of sleep, so I was okay. I had late practice. I did treatment.

Yeah, I felt actually okay. Even though we played three-sets match, but it was like an hour and 20 or 30 minutes, so it wasn't that physical match. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't play for, like, three hours and then, like, I don't know, I would probably come back at 5:00 a.m. and then this would be kind of, like, tricky.

So, yeah, the main thing is that I'm really happy that I was able to sleep eight hours, which is, you know, not bad.

Q. What is your favorite part of playing on the hard courts as opposed to other surfaces?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Favorite... I mean, I think it's really given me lots of benefits on my serve. I think that's the main thing which works really well on hard court for me.