Aryna Sabalenka Reveals How 'Brutal' Eastern European Lifestyle Helped Her Succeed
NewsTuesday, 27 May 2025 at 16:00
Aryna Sabalenka was asked a very interesting question at Roland Garros, and her answer was similarly interesting.
Sabalenka is currently the best player on the WTA Tour. She leads the rankings by some margin, as she has almost double the points compared to her closest rivals.
The Belarusian's dominance came after the dominance of a different player, Iga Swiatek. Like Sabalenka, Swiatek is from the part of Europe considered as "Eastern Europe," which is why she was asked a very interesting question after her latest win in Paris.
Sabalenka, Swiatek, but also other top players like Mirra Andreeva, Elena Rybakina, Diana Shnaider, Karolina Muchova, Barbora Krejcikova, and Elina Svitolina, all come from Eastern European countries.
In fact, out of 20 players in the Top 20 of the WTA Rankings, five come from the United States, 12 from Eastern European countries, one from China, and only two from the western part of Europe (Jasmine Paolini from Italy and Paula Badosa from Spain).
Because of this, Sabalenka was asked whether female tennis players form Eastern Europe are more motivated to work towards becoming professional athletes than players from Western Europe.
The three-time Grand Slam champion was surprised by this question, but she also saw where it came from. Sabalenka admitted that since the Eastern European environment, when it comes to training professional sports, is really tough, the players are then mentally stronger as well, which probably helps them succeed.
"That’s a big question. I have to say that, probably because of the environment in Eastern European countries, we are much tougher. Whoever got through the tough stuff, mentally and physically, they are much stronger... not than the rest of the world... but most of the girls on Tour."
"I don’t know, honestly, why it’s like that. I definitely think the environment we have in our countries, which is very tough and coaches are very brutal... there’s nothing nice about the way they work with their players. They’re quite rude. I think that’s why maybe our mentality is much stronger."
At the same time, Sabalenka sees the negative side of such an approach. There were also many players who were broken by the environment, which certainly doesn't help.
"But also at the same time they kind of broke so many players because of that aggressive mindset. I think in Europe... in the States... the environment is much healthier. It’s all about probably the family. The way they raise their kids and how they push them."
"But my parents weren’t the ones pushing me too much. The only one request they had was like, stop hitting the racquets. Which I wasn’t really following that order [smiling]. But I definitely say that because Eastern European school is very tough... that’s why whoever survives that school, they’re really tough."
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