Aryna Sabalenka nearly made the French Open final last year, and she's learned from that experience, admitting that she won't make the same mistake again.
Last year's Roland Garros was the best Sabalenka had ever played. She was not fond of clay earlier in her career but embraced the surface in recent years after some solid outings.
Her run last year was a great one, but it ended very badly. She was inches away from beating Karolina Muchova, but she lost the match in three sets.
It was a painful loss, as she told the media in Stuttgart ahead of her return at the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. She also expanded more about feeling comfortable on a surface like clay, which she hadn't done for much of her career.
"It's important for every player to know they're able to play on each surface and don't have this weird feeling going into the specific surface thinking like, Oh, my God, that's not my place, I'm not going to do well here."
"It was really important for me to have this success, to have this belief. I got really close last year of making the finals of French Open, like really close. Still probably hurting. But it's okay. I always say, We're not losing, we are learning."
Her exuberant personality came out when she admitted that she wasn't going to waste the opportunity if she found herself in a similar situation. There is no reason to doubt Sabalenka when she says something so decisively, and she proved it many times on the tennis court, and this year's Roland Garros may present her with another one.
"I think if I make it to the same stage of the tournament and I'm going to stay there on 5-2, 30-Love, I'm going to stay there. No f***ing chance I'm going to do the same. No way I can say it differently, but this is how I'm going to stay there thinking, Not this time."