Sabalenka: the brand new friendship with Swiatek like that of Federer and Nadal

Rivals on the court docket, however then there’s a relationship of esteem and friendship exterior, like that between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe and the more moderen one between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: now there may be the one between WTA No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and her biggest rival, Iga Swiatek.

Sabalenka will attempt to win the Australian Open for the third consecutive 12 months: a feat final achieved by Martina Hingis between 1997 and 1999. The season of the world primary will start on the WTA 500 in Brisbane and the title of her first opponent will come out of the problem between Viktoriya Tomova and Renata Zarazua.

Through the Media Day, the Belarusian spoke about her try to defend her title and her new friendship with Iga Swiatek, born because of a TikTok made on the WTA Finals. Since then, the 2 have educated collectively on a couple of event: it is no coincidence, on condition that Aryna is without doubt one of the friendliest tennis gamers on the WTA Tour, as she additionally has friendships with Paula Badosa and Ons Jabeur.

“I have a great memory, I really wanted to come back, I feel at home in Australia. I hope everything goes well. Being number one doesn’t make a difference, no matter what your ranking is: you still have to go out there, compete, fight and do your best. It doesn’t matter if you’re number one, two, three or a hundred.

I definitely have confidence in myself in the Grand Slam tournaments. I know I’m capable of a lot of things and I know I can keep that beautiful trophy with me. There are still a lot of things to do to confirm it, I prefer to think day by day. It’s nice to know that I have the ability to win the Australian Open, but it’s better to focus on yourself and hope that everything works out,” she stated.

“Swiatek? It was fun. It all started at the WTA Finals, when I asked her to do a TikTok. I thought we should be together, have fun and just enjoy our rivalry, not be too hard on each other. Since then we’ve already trained together a couple of times,” she added.

It could seem to be Déjà Vu, however the one between the Belarusian and the Polish jogs my memory of the friendship (extra sober and immediately very deep) between Federer and Nadal. And that is additionally the great thing about our beloved tennis.