Aryna Sabalenka has revealed that she dealt with her defeat to Coco Gauff in the final of the US Open by switching off and forgetting about tennis for a while.
The World No. 1 got agonizingly close to her second Grand Slam title in New York last month, ousting the likes of Daria Kasatkina, Qinwen Zheng, and Madison Keys on her way to a clash with home favorite and sixth seed Gauff.
Although the crowd was overwhelmingly on the side of her opponent, the 25-year-old could take confidence and motivation from the fact that she had usurped Iga Swiatek as the top player in the WTA Ranking after the latter was defeated in the Round of 16 at Flushing Meadows.
However, despite winning the first set of the match 6-2, Sabalenka ultimately saw the title slip away from her as Gauff fought back hard to win her first Grand Slam 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The Belarusian is now competing at her first tournament since the US Open, at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing. She swept past Sofia Kenin in the first round with a straight-sets win, 6-1, 6-2. Sabalenka also shared her biggest takeaways from her match with Gauff which she is trying to use in order to improve her game.
"My biggest takeaway was that I need to learn how to finish the points on the net [smiling]. We worked a lot on my volley game.. I got over-emotional there. I wasn't controlling myself. I was thinking all over the place in that second set. That was the biggest takeaway," she said.
The Australian Open champion also opened up on the emotional toll of the defeat, calling it a 'tough loss.'
"Again, I took [a] couple of days off just to switch off and forgot about tennis because it was a really tough, tough loss for me. It was super emotional," she continued.
Aryna Sabalenka says she had to switch off & forget about tennis after US Open loss to Coco Gauff: “My biggest takeaway was that I need to learn how to finish the points on the net (smiling). We worked a lot on my volley game.. I got over-emotional there. I wasn't controlling…
