Aryna Sabalenka est sans doute LA favorite de cet US Open 2024. La Biélorusse avait réussi sa première semaine en finissant avec un succès contre Ekaterina Alexandrova, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Ce dimanche, la numéro 2 mondiale a encore montré beaucoup d'autorité contre son amie Elise Mertens en huitièmes, 6-2, 6-4. Désormais, en dix duels, Sabalenka a battu neuf fois la Belge. En quarts, la numéro 2 mondiale se frottera à la championne olympique Qinwen Zheng. La Biélorusse a dominé la Chinoise à l'US Open 2023 et l'Open d'Australie 2024. Depuis, Zheng a toutefois changé de dimension...
Vidéo : @USOpen
Vidéo : @USOpen
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00:00Yeah, I'm super happy to win this match. It was a really tough match, especially in the
00:09second set. She stepped in and she started to play a little bit better than the first
00:14set, so I'm really glad I was able to finish this match in straight sets.
00:20Thank you. Questions? David.
00:21Hi, Irina. David Cain, Tennis.com. You know Elisa very well. You played doubles together,
00:26and you were striking a lot of winners tonight. I'm curious if there's something about her
00:29ball that's maybe in your strike zone and is very comfortable?
00:33Well, I wouldn't say that her rhythm is really comfortable for me, but yeah, I know her quite
00:41well and we played a lot of great battles against each other. It's never easy facing
00:48her. She's a really tricky opponent, and I know that she's going to fight and she's going
00:53to try to find something to keep fighting, keep pushing. So it's never easy facing her,
01:00but I was just trying to stay aggressive and I was just trying to put her under so much
01:05pressure tonight, so I got a shorter ball to finish the point. But yeah, that match
01:16wasn't an easy one.
01:18Courtney Nguyen, WTA. Congrats, Irina.
01:23Four straight quarterfinals here in New York. I mean, what do you think has been the secret
01:28to your consistent success? I mean, I know you're a great hardcourt player, but this
01:33is the last slam of the year. Players are tired. There's a lot of reasons why things
01:36could go wrong here. What do you think is the reason for your success?
01:40I don't know. I really enjoy playing here. The crowd are amazing. I really enjoy playing
01:45on these big stadiums, feel all the support. I just don't want to leave early here. I just
01:51want to stay as long as I can and enjoy this beautiful court, beautiful atmosphere. And
01:58I think that's why I kind of like consistency. Wait, wait. Consistency here. No. Consistently
02:10here. Yeah. Oh my God. It's not that late, but my brain is not working right now. Maybe
02:17I, you know, like it's hitting a little bit later.
02:24How are you different, would you say, as a player, sort of mentally, physically, tactically
02:33than a year ago here?
02:36Well, definitely I improved a lot. And that final match, there was really tough lesson
02:47in that final match. And the whole preseason I was working a lot on the variation of my
02:53game, make sure I can come to the net, make sure I can use my touch, slice, drop shots
02:59and all that stuff. I think that's really helpful. And I think I improved a lot. And
03:03mentally, I think since last year, I'm much stronger. So many things happen. So I think
03:13yeah, I think I improved in in lots of different ways.
03:17Reem.
03:18Hi, Reem from The National. Congrats. You just mentioned now you're mentally tougher.
03:26If you had to pinpoint the most important mental health tip or any trick that you learned
03:34from all the work that you've done on your mind, what would it be?
03:38It's a good question. I cannot come up with something right now, but I would definitely
03:42say that the main thing to stay mentally healthy is to be surrounded by the right people. You
03:48know, when you feel all the support, when you feel that your back is covered, that's
03:52the main thing, you know. And you know that whatever is going to happen in your life,
03:57you have people who's going to support you, who's going to stand with you and who's going
04:03to be there with you. I think that's the most important part. And another trick is try to
04:11enjoy, you know, enjoy the journey. You know, you work hard on court, you fight for it,
04:16but then you have, like on the big tournaments, you have a day off. So you have to enjoy that
04:23day. You have to completely separate yourself from tennis. I mean, of course, you do like
04:28your practice session, but after that, just like go for a good dinner. Just enjoy your
04:35free time, you know, and try not to, not like try not to think anyway, that's how it's going
04:40to be there, but just try to enjoy your life, you know.
04:43I know it's easy, and it's not easy at the same time. I think it all comes with experience,
04:50with all these tough losses, with all these tough lessons and big wins, and it's just
04:57all comes with experience.
05:00Smash.
05:02Akif, Smash Magazine. So you said you made a big progress and you did try slices and
05:10coming to the net, but when you are trying to learn something new, don't you have any
05:16like fear or are you not afraid of maybe learning new things make your tennis, your play style
05:24a little bit different or maybe you can lose some like touches or something like that?
05:32I mean, it's not like if I'm learning something, I'm forgetting to practice the rest of my
05:37game, you know, like when I'm learning something, I'm not spending like the whole practice on
05:41learning. I'm just spending a little amount on something new on things which I think going
05:47to help me in some ways on court. And then it's all about trying those things in the
05:54right moments and gain this confidence that you can do all this stuff you've been working
06:02on. So I don't know. I don't have fear that I'm going to lose my game, you know, like
06:08muscle memory is there. I know that I have it. And even even if things can go wrong with
06:14the whatever me over trying to do to go for new stuff I learned, I know that I can always
06:20come back to the to the game, to my, you know, like to my how to say basic basic game.
06:30A couple years ago, when you were struggling with the servant stuff, I know that you tried
06:35to play through it, biomechanical expert, all these sort of things. I'm curious, what
06:40at what point does it did it click at what point? Because I know part of it was mental.
06:45Part of it was maybe mechanical. But what can you pinpoint the moment? Like, how do
06:50you how do you get that shot back?
06:53I like two years ago, I started to work with the biomechanics guy in Cincinnati, I believe.
07:03And already in Cincinnati, things are start working quite well. And then at the US Open,
07:09I was kind of like brave enough to go for those kind of like at that moment, uncomfortable
07:14source for me. I mean, like the second serve. I was I just told myself, OK, I just I got
07:21to go through it like I got to face this fear. I got to just serve and see what happens
07:26and let the player play an extra shot, you know, and I would say that at the US Open
07:34things are clicked like, you know, like I just played the match and I remember facing
07:37like huge, not huge. I remember facing just the fear of double faulting at the US Open.
07:43And I was like, OK, whatever. I mean, I made those double faults a lot, like a double fault,
07:48but whatever. It's nothing new for everybody. I'll just go for it. I have to face my fear.
07:54And I remember like I just made one serve and like I was facing probably break points
07:59or like important points, you know, like going for that second serve. That was quite a fear.
08:04And I was like, OK, I just got to go and see what happens. And I remember like I did it.
08:09I win. I won the point. I was like, hmm, this works. So I don't have to over serve every
08:14time and then like another time, another time. And that's how things kind of like get back,
08:21get back.
08:22You had a very late start in your last match, a very late finish. How tough was it out there
08:27and how what did you recover for this match today?
08:30Yeah, that was a really late start. Yeah, I don't know. You know, like when you play
08:39in like really deep stages of the tournament, you don't care about timing. I was like, OK,
08:44let's say it's like a morning practice if I'm like in Europe, you know, like whatever.
08:48I don't care. I just want to win and go home. And then I got back at 3 a.m., probably fall
08:54asleep at 4. And I was completely off. I just fall asleep, which is usually never happened
09:00like that. But I was able to get like eight hours of sleep. So I was I was OK, you know,
09:04like and I had late practice. I did treatment and yeah, I felt actually OK, even though
09:10like we played like three sets match, but it was like an hour and 20 or 30 minutes.
09:14So it wasn't that like physical much. So, yeah, I'm glad I'm glad I didn't play for
09:20like three hours and then like I don't know, I would probably come back at 5 a.m.
09:24Then it would be kind of like tricky. So, yeah, I the main thing that I'm really happy
09:30that I was able to sleep like eight hours, which is, you know, like not bad.
09:34Howard, last question.
09:36Irina, Howard Fendrich with the Associated Press. What is your favorite part?
09:41My entire was the question. I was like, what is that? My name really, I tell you what,
09:51what is your favorite part of playing on the hard courts as opposed to other services?
09:58Favorite. I mean, I think it's really giving me lots of benefits on my serve. I think that's
10:07the main main thing which works really well on hard court for me.