Aryna Sabalenka alarm bells ringing as former British No 1 makes worrying aura claim
World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka’s worrying slide in fortunes continued with a surprise defeat at the Canadian Open in Toronto and now former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has claimed the aura she had a year ago has slipped.
Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Sabalenka 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 in a match that concluded in two hours and 29 minutes, with the vulnerabilities Sabalenka has been showing on display again in this latest setback.
She may have saved a couple of match points with bold serves at the end of the third set, but a double fault handed Alexandrova a win and the post-mortem on another setback is now underway.
“I just tried to play every single point as if it was the last one because with her, you don’t have a lot of chances during the match,” said Alexandrova. “I had a lot today, but I couldn’t realise some of them. But honestly, I was trying not to think about the score or anything. Just hit the ball, and that’s it.
“I’m super happy that I could win because after the second set, I thought (the chance) was already past me.”
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Sabalenka became increasingly more frustrated as the threat of defeat rushed towards her against Alexandrova and Rusedski has now given his punchy verdict on the problem that is undermining the world’s top-ranked female tennis player.
She powered to victory at last year’s US Open, but has been struggling to maintain that form over the last year and is now clearly suffering from a dip in confidence.
After joking she wanted to ‘quit tennis’ after her French Open defeat against Diana Shnaider and then offering up more gloomy comments as she lost to Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon, Rusedski feels her opponents are seeing cracks in Sabalenka’s make-up on court.
“A year ago, players would step on court with her and it was only the very, very top players being able to beat her, the players in the top five or in the top ten,” said Rusedski on the latest edition of his podcast.
“Now all of a sudden they’re seeing Sabalenka lose and they’re seeing (her opponents) the comment she’s making. And that just gives them belief.
“So when they step on the court, they think to themselves, I got a shot to beat the world number one. You’re losing one or two or three points a match because the attitude of your opponents have changed when they walk on court and that’s difficult to get back.
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“I’m not hitting the panic button yet, but Cincinnati’s gonna be big for her. She needs to win that event if she’s gonna come out and win the US Open.
“She’s gotta make a statement to the locker room because the locker room is starting to believe that they can beat her.”
Sabalenka will head into next week’s Cincinnati Open as the top seed, but she is not the favourite to win the tournament on current form.