Aryna Sabalenka won her third-round match at the 2024 Australian Open with a double bagel, while many of her competitors were beaten; even so, she dismissed the favourite tag.
There are many reasons why the Belarusian is considered a favourite for the Australian Open, and a good part of that is her being the defending champion. She was amazing last year, won the trophy, and is even better this year.
So naturally, everybody will assume that she's going to win it, right? Especially with Elena Rybakina crashing out. Jessica Pegula is also out, as is Maria Sakkari. It's only really Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff who remain as the big names, and neither looked as impressive as Sabalenka so far.
Despite beating Lesia Tsurenko 6-0 6-0 in her most recent match at the event, Sabalenka dismissed the favourite tag, explaining that it's the nature of tennis. Her big rivals crashing out early just proves that anybody can really beat anybody.
"Listen, it's tennis. As we see by some of the top players losing in the earlier matches that anything can happen, so I don't want to look that far. I'm just focusing match by match."
She's not wrong because anybody can really beat anybody, and that includes herself. Just recently, she was bested by Rybakina in two sets, and that can happen against Swiatek or some other player. It could even happen against Amanda Anisimova, who is her next opponent.
"Yeah, if I'm ready, ready to be in another one; if not, I'm not. I'm just trying to do my best and prepare myself as best I can for each match."
As she said, it's important to stay present in the moment and only think of the next match. If she does that a few more times and wins a few more matches, she'll have her second Grand Slam trophy.
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