Aryna Sabalenka finally made that big step this year, becoming world number one on the WTA Tour and a Grand Slam champion.
2023 was a year of making dreams come true for Aryna Sabalenka, who achieved quite a few things this year. One of the big achievements happened pretty early in the season as she won her maiden Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open.
She would go on to become world number one later on, and the crucial part of that was simply her finally maturing as a player. Physical dominance was her calling card for much of her career, but the mental fortitude was never there.
It was there this year that former world number one Tracy Austin singled out as the crucial part of her breakthrough, when talking to tennis.com.
We’ve long known about Aryna Sabalenka’s physical power and tennis skills. But this year was her big mental breakthrough. From winning the Australian Open to reaching No. 1 in the rankings, Aryna played excellent tennis all year long.
One thing Austin thinks greatly helped Sabalenka in getting to where she did in 2023 was ditching a sports psychologist. As strange as that might sound, she gave a pretty interesting explanation, and it kind of makes sense.
There were some things Sabalenka had to get over and nobody could have helped her there. She needed to work through them herself, and she did.
I think the big step came when she announced that she’d stopped working with a sports psychologist before the Australian Open. She realized that she needed to take more responsibility for everything from her mental attitude to refining her serve technique.
That makes sense, even though it might not have worked for everybody. Iga Swiatek has been quite open to how important working with a psychologist is for her, so it's about finding what works for the individual.
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