World number one Aryna Sabalenka enters the Australian Open in her familiar role as the hot favourite but unlike in the past two years the powerful Belarusian arrives without a title to defend or the momentum of a winning run in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
The twice champion’s 20-match winning streak at the season’s opening major was snapped in the title clash 12 months ago when American outsider Madison Keys denied her a successful defence and a rare three-peat last achieved by Martina Hingis in 1999.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka shrugged off that disappointment as well as losing in the French Open final and Wimbledon semi-finals to secure her fourth Grand Slam crown at the US Open, leaving her primed for another title tilt on the blue hardcourts Down Under.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, there’s no difference,” Sabalenka said of her mindset heading into Melbourne Park no longer in possession of the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
\n“Every time, it doesn’t matter what tournament it is … if I’m the defending champion or if I lost in the first round last year, the goal is always the same – to bring my best tennis and improve my game.<\/p>\n
“That’s how I take it. I’m always just focusing on myself, on developing my game, and making sure I’m 100% there. That’s my goal and focus every time.”
\nSabalenka’s serve infamously hampered her in Australia four years ago but her refined delivery has become a crucial weapon, while her variations with drop shots and sharper tactical nous have turned her into a formidable force.<\/p>\n
She won a tour\u2011leading four trophies last season and made nine finals, underlining her consistency at the highest level, with a shock loss to Elena Rybakina in last year’s WTA Finals title clash bringing her campaign to an abrupt.
\n“I love playing here and I want to stay here as long as possible. Of course remembering last year’s (Australian Open) final, I want to do a little bit better than I did.”<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21159,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-22297","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Sabalenka shrugged off that disappointment as well as losing in the French Open final.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Sabalenka shrugged off that disappointment as well as losing in the French Open final.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25642,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22297\/revisions\/25642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}