Aryna Sabalenka had a tremendous start to her 2024 campaign in Australia, but it's been a bit shaky after that, with a recent injury scare being another trouble.
It's been over a year since the Belarusian ascended to the new level. Before last year's Australian Open, it was something that was mainly speculated upon, but it came true last January.
She won her maiden Grand Slam trophy and never looked back as a player, putting together an extraordinary campaign that catapulted her to number one at one point.
While she began this year as world number two, Sabalenka still matched last year's Australian Open success by winning it again this year. Since then, though, she failed to back it up with more results.
Her first match since Australia wasn't that great, and it was a loss. Her second match was at the WTA 1000 event in Indian Wells, and it was better because she actually won.
Despite that, there was another moment that could have ended up being devasting for her. She twisted her ankle and looked in pain afterward but shook it off and finished the match. After the match, she provided some updates on the status of her ankle.
"It was bad in first seconds, but then slowly it was getting better and I felt like, okay, I'm ready to play. But in that moment when they twisted a little bit, I thought, oh, God, what I did wrong? It's happening to me."
Sabalenka sounded very positive after the match, with the firm belief that she would be ready for the next match. We don't know if that will be the case, as things can look quite different once the body cools down and she sleeps on it.
"But I was trying, this is just the proof that I was trying so hard to get to every ball and to put every ball back. Yeah, but now I feel okay. We'll see tomorrow. But I have a great team, and I'm pretty sure they will take care of it so for the next match I will be ready."
Time will tell, but even ankle rolls that don't cause any structural damage don't necessarily need to heal in 24-48 hours, and playing on it wouldn't be advisable.
0 Comments