Aryna Sabalenka Press Conference | 2024 US Open Pre-Tournament

Intro welcome impressive win last week in Cincinnati your thoughts on the open this year um yeah I'm super happy with the title very important very important one and just super excited to be back at the US Open one of my favorite slams thank you Mary hey Arena are you the best Best hardcourt player hardcore player in the world what a question I don't know you better ask other players um I mean I think I definitely do really well on the hardcour TikTok dance David AR uh I didn't get a chance to ask you this in Cincinnati but I saw on your Tik Tok you posted the Tik Tock dance to the Apple challenge I'm curious like what does brat summer mean to you and are you having one right now well um that was a fun video actually and uh my summer so far is um a lot of hard work and a little bit of Tik Tok David hi Arena David LA from the Unfinished business tennis podcast um just thinking back to last year and and obviously the disappointment you had of not winning the title in the end and and and you've had some other close ones here as well do do you feel like you have unfinished business here at the US Open does it is it something that's in your mind a lot as you try to I guess motivate yourself it's not like it's in my mind a lot that I kind of kind of like have unfinished something here but uh those stuff losses definitely motivated me a lot to uh to hard work and to improve things which didn't work in the previous years and every time I'm I'm coming here I really I'm really hoping for the best result and I really hope one day I'll be able to live this beautiful trophy um Feeling fresh yeah hi Reena great to see you before your summer hardcourt season started you were talking about how good it felt to of course be healthy again and you felt really refreshed and I wonder how do you feel having three events later and playing quite a few matches do you still feel that same sense of freshness and you know overall how does it feel how is the shoulder and how's everything looking for you yeah yeah I mean it was um that little um little break was much needed and um the first two tournaments were kind of like tricky with the shoulder I was like first time I F like this kind of like fear of getting injured uh but I'm really happy that in Cincinnati things are clicked for me and um I um I trust uh I trust uh the hard work we did and I I'm I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to injure it again get injured again and I still feel hungry and I still feel uh maybe not fresh fresh but um definitely like ready to go and um I feel like hungrier than than than I was before uh before they wble done Arena hello Russell Fuller from the Mental health BBC so mentally and physically since the Australian Open do you think you're probably feeling at your best now I read not just about the the shoulder injury at Wimbledon of course but the interview you go to the guardian where you said that you probably overplayed and carried on playing in March after the terrible events there well I definitely think that after this year um I'll mentally I'll become even stronger which is I felt like there is no more uh Gap to get stronger mentally than I am at the at the moment but yeah things showed me that yeah actually there is there is way to improve and yeah I definitely think looking back I definitely think that I should have just stop and just kind of like uh yeah like separate myself from tennis just like have this little break and uh recharge and kind of like start things over again and I think I kind of like overplayed and I carried a lot and at the end it just hit me with the injury and also I was I was sick I was injured I had stomach issue um at the French Open and you know like like uh healthwise I was struggling a lot and and uh yeah and that's why I think that this break this break was much needed and not like I'm happy to get injured but I had I'm happy that I had this uh uh this time off and this kind of like time to reset my mind and yeah and and to get to get ready for the hardcour okay go Howard Bill Willie Howard iena Referee calls Howard fendri with the Associated Press there have been a few uh calls recently during matches that were not reviewable uh some players wondered why can't we check it on video they do have a system here for that on some courts do you like that do you think it should be everywhere do you prefer letting chair umpires figure it out the way they have been I mean I think that's really important that we have this system here because I saw those uh those tough calls and I think that's really unfair for for for some of the players you know like not to be able to um review the the referee calls and and also for the referees you kind of like can understand like you know like Tenn is uh um improved a lot and it's faster it's it's it's not that easy to be on the on the chair be a chair chair Empire so I think I think that's that's going to be helpful for everybody and healthy for everyone to have these um reviews so I think that's really a cool cool thing to have Bill iing Bill Simons inside tennis Joy in life uh you were just talking about sort of all the tough aspects the injuries and all that in tennis but over the years so often I don't know we've seen you you've been laughing joyous giggling rub rubbing somebody's bald head you know just having a lot of fun could you just talk about the joy you feel the sort of little girl Giggles I don't know what but where where did that come from and does that help you on on the circuit I mean I think my personality come came from from my father um I wish he would be still alive I think we would have so much fun together right now uh but you know like this Joy came with the with the experience and with the with the understanding a lot of stuff because before I was probably too much into tennis and uh trying to be too focused like putting myself under so much pressure and lately I just realized that this is not how things works you have to you have to balance this hard work this uh this expectations pressure and everything with the with little Joy you know you have to find like things which bring brings you Joy and I have my uh crazy crazy team and we have so much fun together and yeah and I think that's really important to balance this these things so just trying to be to be me uh off Court you know like just not to be too too serious or too focused Trouble with boyfriend did you get into deep trouble with your boyfriend over the everyone is just like you know like first time I came to arur asley and the the crowd was like show us your boyfriends I'm like wow why no he was laughing he knows that uh I have only him but I don't know what's wrong with this world like for the second time I'm making this stupid mistake probably I need to work on my English pronunciation it's terrible it's been really terrible lately really when when you watch video Watching yourself of yourself recent video of yourself as both a player and also seeing your emotions and your happiness what what does it make you feel oh which exactly videos like me watching myself playing you watch video of the way you're playing and the way you're approaching the game emotionally how does it make you feel well when I see some of my shows I feel like wow how the how I was able to make that one you know like and um the way I'm playing right now I um I feel really proud because I know how hard I work to improve my game to to be able to do all those kind of like tricky shots and to have this variation in the game so it just it just brings me um only like positive emotions and also it's like when I see myself like improving some stuff it just just motivate me and kind of like Inspire myself to um to work hard and to find some more stuff to improve and to get better of all the times in your Player happiness career how would you rate your happiness right now as a player m i mean right now I'm somewhere like uh if we rating up to 10 then I'm like somewhere like 6 7 last two Brian and then Court Whos ready to win Brian a lot of players maybe because of the Olympics didn't have their usual preparation for US Open like they would have is it hard to tell who's outside of you who just won last week is it hard to tell who's ready to win uh this week I mean I think that everyone who who came here they think that they're ready to win and I think it's not about like who is ready you know you can be ready uh better than the rest of the group but it's at the at the end of the day it's all about how hard are you ready to fight for it and and uh yeah how hard are you ready to fight for it especially on those days when you don't feel your best last question Weight off of shoulders Court I was waiting if she's going to ask question or now like it's was so weird that she was ask anything just waiting for moment you know uh the title in Cincinnati not just the title but also beating Jess beating egoa how much of that is did you feel after that tournament was like a weight off of your shoulders of of kind of getting those wins getting a title since Australian Open or how much of it felt like a lift I mean I definitely felt really like really good after Cincinnati title it was very important for me um to to get that title and to get those wins um I think yeah I was I was really happy with the level I played uh um and uh it's not like it's uh waist out uh weight out of my shoulder it just uh it's just little like happy moment before go before going to the US Open which is also uh very important to have this good feelings before the big tournaments thank you everyone