4-1 Sabalenka. Then eleven straight games for Andreeva. 6-4, 6-0, 1 hour 2 minutes, Wednesday at the WTA Finals. I know this pattern by heart: it’s my last Sunday of interclubs (club league, Belgium’s weekend team league), except I led 3-1.
Technically, the match reads very well. Andreeva explained it to DH, the Belgian daily: “I struggled to adjust to her game, her serve, at the start (…). Then I tried to play with more aggression, to be more explosive with my legs, and it paid off.” A change of intentions, work on the footing. That’s exactly what I’ve been noting in my folder for two seasons. The explosive legs, I have them. Two practice sessions away, mind you.
In the second set, Sabalenka saved three break points at 0-2. Then an error, and the double break. I see a single variable: the strings. Eleven games in a row doesn’t come out of nowhere. Nobody is asking about the tension, nobody.
Afterwards she was asked what she would tell herself if she were her own coach. She started with a word I keep for the car park, then: “No, but seriously: keep it up. If it didn’t go well today, it doesn’t mean tomorrow will be the same.” That’s my line at the clubhouse bar, with the cone of chips, for recovery.
Silly question, but if you’re your own coach, do you pay yourself?
Andreeva, for her part, says she could play two more matches. She’s through to the semi-finals, two wins from two. I don’t have that energy after a doubles, but it was bucketing down.
Sabalenka will play for her qualification against Elina Svitolina, who beat Karolina Muchova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 earlier on Wednesday. My advice as a C30.4 (a club-level ranking): record it tonight. Doesn’t always work for me. But I make it.
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
