Eugenie Bouchard in love with Aryna Sabalenka's decision to stop working with her sports psychologist
Former World No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard recently reacted fondly to 2023 Australian Open finalist Aryna Sabalenka's decision to stop consulting with her sports psychologist.
Sabalenka advanced to the Australian Open final with a 7-6(1), 6-2 victory over unseeded Pole Magda Linette on Thursday, January 26, extending the Belarusian's unbeaten start to the year and setting up a final clash with Elena Rybakina.
The 2023 Adelaide International 1 champion, who has not dropped a set en route to 10 wins in 2023, will be looking to win her first Grand Slam title at the first Major of the year.
Aryna Sabalenka revealed in a post-match press conference on Thursday, January 26, that she has decided to discontinue working with her sports psychologist, stating that she has taken matters into her own hands because no one else can help her fix her problem but herself.
"To be honest, I decide to stop working with a psychologist. I realized that nobody than me will help, you know? Hoping that someone will fix my problem, it's not fixing my problem," Sabalenka said.
"I just have to take this responsibility and I just have to deal with that. Yeah, I'm not working with psychologist any more. I'm my psychologist," she added.
In light of this, Eugenie Bouchard took to Twitter to express her love and support for her colleague's bold decision, writing:
"Love this."
Love this twitter.com/marioboc17/sta…
"I just have to be there and have to, again, work for it and put her under pressure"- Aryna Sabalenka on her match against Elena Rybakina
When asked how she plans to deal with her nerves ahead of her first Grand Slam final, Aryna Sabalenka said she isn't thinking about it too much because it's okay to be "nervous" and overthinking it will only make things worse for her.
"To be honest, I think I'm not going to do something extra. Like, I think that's okay to feel little bit nervous," Sabalenka said.
"It's a big tournament, big final. If you're going to start trying to do something about that, it's going to become bigger, you know? I'll just leave it like that. It's okay to feel nervous," she added.
The Belarussian then discussed her upcoming opponent, Elena Rybakina, saying she intends to put the reigning Wimbledon champion "under pressure" to get her work done.
"About the match, yeah, she's playing great tennis, serving well. I just have to be there and have to, again, work for it and put her under pressure. Yeah, that's it," Sabalenka said.