Aryna Sabalenka admitted that she had a clear plan when Coco Gauff struggled with her serve in their semi-final match at the 2024 Wuhan Open.
The Belarusian player is no stranger to serving struggles. Only a few years ago, she was one of the players with the most double faults hit on the WTA Tour, as she struggled with her serve a lot.
To improve as a player, she hired a biomechanics coach, who completely turned her career around, given her success after fixing the difficulties with her serve.
Now, as a player who could consider her serve a weapon, Sabalenka sometimes faces players who, like her before, can have a really bad serving day that can ultimately cost them the win.
That happened in World No. 2's match against Gauff at the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan. The young American was leading 6-1, 4-2, but her serving problems ultimately cost her the win.
Sabalenka won the match in three sets, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, and after the match, she revealed that she felt sympathetic towards her opponent while she struggled to keep the ball on the court.
"I was playing that match thinking, like, Well, girl, I feel you. I feel you like nobody else. I know what she's going through. This is really difficult. This is really tough."
At the same time, Sabalenka recognized that once Gauff is able to fix her serve, she could become one of the greatest players, given that she's already one of the best.
"But I know that if she'll be able to overcome this serve situation, she already one of the best players, but I'm pretty sure she's going to be one of the greatest players."
At the same time, Sabalenka knew what would be the most effective strategy against her struggling opponent. As someone who had similar struggles before, the Belarusian player knew that she had to put as much pressure as possible on Gauff's serve to force her to make even more double faults.
"I mean, how did it feel? At some point in the second set, when she kept breaking me, I was like, Okay, I still have chances on her serve. I was just trying to put as much pressure on her as I could so she would go even crazier on her serve."
"Yeah, I think she just dropped her level on her serve. I just felt like, Okay, I still have some chances in this match. I was pushing myself so hard to put balls back on the other side as much as I could."
Ultimately, that strategy seemed to be working, and Sabalenka won the match to set up the final meeting with Qinwen Zheng, even though, as she admitted after the match, early on, she didn't believe that she could win, as she was being outplayed.
"At the beginning, I couldn't do anything. I didn't feel any strokes. It felt like, Whatever. I kind of like accepted I already lost this match. I was like, Okay, whatever."
"If she's going to give me chances, I'll try my best. If not, whatever, I'll fly back home, enjoy a little rest time and prepare for the Finals. But yeah, I'm happy I was able to turn around this match."
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