Aryna Sabalenka is ready to go ahead of her bid to win a first Roland Garros title in Paris.
The world number one is yet to win Roland Garros and came awfully close in last year’s final before losing to Coco Gauff in three sets.
It was an emotional rollercoaster which saw her have an outburst after the match but has recovered well on and off the court since that moment.
Since then Sabalenka has learned a lot about her character, “I think my emotions were destroying my game, and my level was dropping dramatically when I would just start overreacting on everything,” Sabalenka told the Roland Garros website in her pre-tournament press conference.
“And also, at the same time, my opponents would see that, and they would step in and play better… First of all, making sure that my opponent doesn’t see what’s going on in my head, and at the same time, to perform better and to stay in the zone, it was a huge improvement over the years in my career and really helped me to level up.”
It’s been a strange clay court season for Sabalenka who suffered defeats to Hailey Baptiste and Sorana Cirstea in Madrid and Rome respectively.
However Sabalenka is now ready to fight for her Roland Garros dream and feels ready to go physically, “I think all of us are here just for one reason,” Sabalenka acknowledged.
“Doesn’t matter if I didn’t play a lot of matches on the clay court. I know that I know how to play on clay, and it’s all about being physically and mentally healthy, to go for it, and to be ready to fight. All I can say is that I’m ready to fight, and of course I hope to do a little bit better than I did last year.
“I struggled at the beginning of the clay-court [season] physically, to be honest, but right now I feel 100 per cent. We did a great recovery. We focused on recovery and made sure that I’m healed everywhere and I’m ready to go. Right now, as I said, physically I’m ready to go.”
Sabalenka begins her bid for Roland Garros glory against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the first round.
