Aryna Sabalenka makes position clear after Iga Swiatek chooses World No.1 as her potential future coach
Aryna Sabalenka made her position clear on becoming a tennis coach. This came after Iga Swiatek recently named the Belarusian her choice for a WTA player being her coach.
Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray teamed up last year after being on-court rivals for a decade, creating a lot of noise in the tennis world. In light of that, journalists have been asking WTA players who they would choose from the Tour to coach them.
This line of questioning at the Dubai Tennis Championships has given a unique insight into the players' thinking. Some wanted their closest rivals, some wanted those with better tactical awareness, and some wanted those against whom they had a poor record.
When asked, World No. 2 Iga Swiatek initially named Andrea Petkovic as her choice to be a coach. The Pole then named Sabalenka, claiming that the Belarusian might retire first as she was older. The Pole acknowledged that her on-court rival being her coach would be funny.
"Petkovic is not playing anymore but I heard she has a really great eye and I always liked her, so I think we would get along. I don’t know, maybe Aryna. She’s older than me and maybe she’s going to finish earlier (than me) and that would be funny,” said Swiatek.
When a fan asked Sabalenka about this on a Q&A session on Instagram, the Belarusian light-heartedly said that she would be a good choice because of her "crazy" experience on Tour and that she would be useful in helping with handling mental obstacles of the game.
"I'm not sure about that. Probably bc of my crazy experience I could help with the mental part of the game..But once again..I'm not sure about that," said Sabalenka
Sabalenka will next play at the WTA 1000 event in Indian Wells, which begins on March 3.
Both Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek had poor Middle East swings
Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek didn't taste success in the Middle East swing on the WTA Tour. The Belarusian had a torrid time in the WTA 1000 events in Qatar and Dubai, winning one out of three matches. She lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova in Qatar, while Clara Tauson defeated her in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Swiatek looked in good form at both events but faltered in the latter stages. She lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinals in Qatar, while teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva beat her in the quarterfinals in Dubai. Both losses were in straight sets as the Pole could not mount a defense.
Interestingly, even though Swiatek had better results than Sabalenka on paper, the Pole lost more points as she was the defending champion in Qatar and a semi-finalist in Dubai last year. Sabalenka did not have a good result in the Middle East last year as well and gained some points this year despite early round exits.
The Belarusian remains steadfast on the No.1 ranking with 9076 points, while the Pole remains on No. 2 with 7985 points.