Aryna Sabalenka Puts Rivalry With Iga Swiatek on the Backseat as She Actively Roots for Her for Greater Good

Despite craving success, Aryna Sabalenka knows how to properly respect the game and its players. She maintains this approach even with her rivals. Rather than creating a frigid environment or remaining unconcerned about the individuals she competes against, the 25-year-old chooses to adopt an attitude of support and motivation. This reason behind such an attitude of Sabalenka might be because of her ‘love to face really tough challenges’.

Instead of harboring resentment, she thinks it is better to inspire her opponents. But why would the second-ranked tennis player in the world embrace such a philosophy? The Australian Open champion recently revealed this side of her athletic personality by sharing her tendency to back her opponents, including her main rival, Iga Swiatek.

Why does Aryna Sabalenka root for her rivals? 

After the Australian Open victory, the world number two-ranked tennis player is back in action for the WTA event in Dubai. Before starting the tournament, in a press conference, she opened up about facing a lot of top tennis players, and at the same time, she also expressed how she always gets to have a ‘great battle’ against Swiatek.

She said, “I love to face really tough challenges in the last stages of the tournaments. I think, like, every final I play against Jelena or Iga, it’s always great battle. I always enjoy fighting, kind of like enjoy trying to get it instead of get it easily, if I can say that, I like to fight for wins.”

Not only that, she highlighted that the feeling of winning a match is actually kind of amazing. Further, she added, “After you get this win, you’re feeling better, like you actually faced the challenge, you kind of went through it, you get the title. It’s more enjoyable.”

Also read: Aryna Sabalenka Turns Candid on Boyfriend’s Simplistic Pep Talk That Became the Secret of Her Maiden Australian Open Crown

After the Australian Open victory, the Belarusian tennis player opened up about how she is working on herself to make herself a better opponent for the top-ranked tennis players.

Sabalenka is in no mood to stop

After the championship, when the 25-year-old appeared on the WTA Insider podcast, she opened up about how, even after winning two Grand Slam titles, she is focusing on building herself right now, with which she can achieve more in the future.

She stated, “But I definitely think that if I’m going to keep working like I’m working right now, and if we’re going to keep building what we are building right now, I’m definitely able to do the same on the clay and on the grass. So then I’ll just keep working hard and hopefully this year I’ll achieve the same goal.”

Further, she also highlighted how she is quite confident about her dominance at the French Open and Wimbledon this year after making it to a good position in the tournaments last year. However, what are your thoughts on Sabalenka’s take on keeping up with her rivals? Do let us know in the comments section below.

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