Monica Puig has noticed that Aryna Sabalenka starts getting angry with herself very early, in the first game. She said so on the Inside-In podcast, quoted by Tennis365. I read it on my phone, towel still over my shoulder after Tuesday night.
First game. Me, in the first game, I’m not there yet. I’m setting my zone. I test the bounce on the crushed brick of court 4, I check the strip light, I note that my strings have moved again. My intentions arrive in the third game. The anger, in the fifth, and only if the light flickers.
So technically, on this point, I have a more mature pattern than Sabalenka. Not on the rest, I’m not mad. But on managing the first game, I’m ahead. Two practice sessions away, mind you.
The facts: she was dethroned at the US Open by Elena Rybakina, knocked out on her first outing in Wuhan, beaten in her second match in Beijing. Monica Puig reckons she just needs to refocus and thinks she’ll come through “1,000%”. She also said: “I love her competitive spirit, she just needs to refocus.” That one goes in my folder. Competitive spirit: ticked. Refocusing: under way, at 1,000%.
Greg Rusedski had already slipped her a piece of advice before. Two pieces of advice, one of them from a 2016 Olympic champion. Me, my doubles partner says “come on” on every point, and I’m still C30.4, a club-level ranking. The level of advice has gone way up, people don’t realise.
And on the book line, “you can’t guess the ending in the first chapter”, I agree. My AFT (Belgian tennis federation) ranking, I read it in full every January, and the ending always surprises me.
The third game, Céline, I’d already won it in the first.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
