Aryna Sabalenka Press Conference | 2024 US Open Quarterfinal

hello if you could your thoughts on today's win um yeah very important win um it wasn't that easy as the score looks and she's a great player and oh yeah I'm sorry and one second and I'm really happy to win this match in in two sets and I'm really happy with the level I played today so it was Scrapy forance thank you I'll go around the room one question each please Charlie I Charlie from the athletic congrats on the win a lot of people are talking about you as you tournament favorite do you like that kind of label or would you rather not have that pressure I mean if you get to the top five level you know like anyway everyone will take you as a favorite but as I always say it's not about being favorite it's about how um how hard they ready to fight for it you know and it's going it's going to be tough moments in the matches when you don't feel your best and you have to go through it it's all about that but um I'm really glad they they take me as a favorite and I'll do my very best to um to hold this beautiful trophy hi from the national congratulations Arena you've always been very open about any struggles that you're facing in the past you had a barrier in the slams and then you broke it with the serve you broke it if you can share the number one thing that has helped you become mentally T at this level what would it [Music] be I really think that the biggest key is um I really believe that to have right people around you you know it's all about being being honest with yourself first of all and then be able to open to the people around you and um especially when it's your coach and and talk openly about stuff which bother bothering you during the match and and and uh try to figure out the solution together you know I think that's uh that's the main thing what what what really helped me to uh to went through all those tough challenges uh in my life really next you play Emma what do you remember most about the two matches you had with her and what are your observations about her progress as a player yeah she's doing really well um beautiful to see she's working hard playing really great tennis smart tennis moving well um hitting pretty heavy shots and um and last two matches we played was really tough uh tough matches physically and mentally and um even though I won the last one in two sets it wasn't that easy match and it was very intense match and um yeah I'm really looking for for another great battle against her and your styles are so different yeah what does that do for the matchup do you think oh wow what a question I mean I'm going to try to put um so much pressure on her and and um and probably try not let her um do her stuff you know and yeah I have to think about that tomorrow and I have to talk about that with my tomorrow with my coach you know I'll just throw it get back to thank you congratulations uh General speaking uh when you see that women's WTA tour now uh current uh WTA tour and if you compare the current tennis to the four or five years ago uh did you see any do you see any differences in terms of the level or depth of a players or a variety of play Styles well it's very tough compare um for me to compare because like like five years ago I was completely different player and I saw stuff differently than I see it right now but I definitely see uh a lot of improvement in the women's tennis everyone is getting mentally stronger um everyone um every everyone knows how to play tennis and I think tennis is much faster right now uh talking about speed and the way everyone moves and and there is statistics you know like every everyone everyone kind of like know each other and it's all about those um key moments in the match who who's going to who's going to handle um that pressure moment better uh but I definitely think that women's tennis improved a lot and it's um more fun to watch and especially like um deeper stages of the tournaments it's really I think it's really fun to watch and um yeah I see I see big progress Sani hi Arena um congrats to manik from the guardian uh you you've made um eight of the last nine semi-finals when you've been in in the draw um I'm curious how normal or does it feel now um compared to obviously when you started um making deep runs and I imagine you must have celebrated them more than you do now right yeah yeah I I became more experienced player and um I I think um I have better consistency in the game right now and before when you just coming up on tour like for you making the second week it's something crazy and you see stuff like uh crazy and and you put so much pressure on you about the grand slams about the results and everything and you just you know you're always under pressure and honestly before I didn't even know how to manage that pressure and on those day offs I would think too much about tennis and it would actually um I would just waste my energy on that and nowadays I'm just trying to take things things easier which is like I mean sounds interesting but I'm just trying to take it easy it's just tennis you know like I'm uh I'm just trying to bring my uh best tennis every time I'm just trying to fight for it and I know that no matter what what's going to happen on the court I'm going to fight for it and and you know if it's meant to be it's going going going to happen and the only thing you control you can control it yourself and you just have to you just literally have to fight for it and yeah basically that's it and it's helped me to kind of like you know be able to enjoy the journey you know which is not not not always easy to do hi arena for uh I've seen on an article that you sometimes bet money uh during training session when your stuff so I would like to know if it's true and which type of exercises which amount of money and if you win most of the time or not well my coach put the money on the table when we play set or mat with uh with my hitting partner and usually it's quite decent amount of money you know and and the the money from your coach is the sweetest money you know and one time I lost five 5,000 uh yeah and another time uh last time actually I won it and to see how pce my hearing partner was it was amazing amazing feeling and honestly the it's it's it's just helped to kind of like um try to bring this uh M matches pressure on the practice court and try to work through it you know um I think that's that's really cool thing especially when you win in this money and not losing so um yeah we just try to um how to say simulate the matches pressure on the on the on the on the practice court we have time for one more re it's not every day that Roger feder is in the stands when you're playing in a slam did you know that he was up in the stands and did that for a second did your mind Wonder to that does it yeah I saw I saw him there I saw him on the big screen and I mean I'm pretty sure he came to watch TF and deit her but still I was like okay you know I have to play my best tennis so he enjoy it and I have to have to show my skills you know Sly skills come to the net and all that stuff um yeah that was nice moment nice to see him around thank you very much thank you