Aryna Sabalenka credited learning how to handle her emotions better as one of the things that helped her land her maiden Miami Open title.
Playing in her first Miami final in her seventh appearance at the tournament, the Belarusian struggled with her serve throughout the first set and got broken by Jessica Pegula three times. However, the top seed was also strong in her return and still managed to win the first set after collecting four breaks on her own.
After recovering from a break down in the second set, Sabalenka also found herself trailing by a break after just one game played in the second set. But she quickly corrected that by claiming three breaks in the rest of the set - and not losing her serve once - to get the job done and register a 7-5 6-2 win.
Sabalenka: I didn't want anymore to be that girl who'd become frustrated and break rackets
"One day, I just decided, 'OK, whatever happens on the court, I'm not gonna show my emotions'. I went through a lot, and there is much more difficult stuff in life than just any smash, so I was like,' OK, whatever happens, I'm not gonna show any emotions.' I'm done with that," the three-time Grand Slam winner explained.
"I don't wanna be that kid who's like, keeps getting frustrated and losing the matches. And it worked really well. I think it was the first year when I won the Australian Open (2023) that I just realized a lot of things, and since then, I'm a different person, a different player, and (stronger) in the mental part of the game. It was a huge improvement."
In the past, Sabalenka definitely was no stranger to smashing rackets and absolutely losing it in moments of frustration. And not being able to control her emotions played a part in some of the painful Slam defeats early in her career.
When the 2023 season started, Sabalenka repeated several times that she was working on becoming calmer. Since then, she has won the most Grand Slams on the Tour and has been the top-ranked player in the world since September.
