Aryna Sabalenka believes there is still room for improvement in her game after she stormed into the fourth round of the Australian Open on Thursday.
The defending champion thrashed Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-0, 6-0, in under an hour to claim her first-ever Tour-level win without dropping a game. Overall, she has dropped just six games in the tournament so far en route to the last 16 of the tournament. This is the fewest games dropped at the Australian Open since 2016 when Victoria Azarenka lost five during her first three matches.
Despite producing one of the most dominant victories of her entire career, the world No.2 has vowed to keep grounded about her current form. Admitting there are always areas of her game that she can make better.
“There is always something to improve,” she stated.
“That’s why you just can’t be happy with the level you are at right now so you always have to keep moving and keep improving.”
Sabalenka is one of three top-eight seeds still playing in the tournament following a series of high-profile exits. The other two are world No.1 Iga Swiatek and current US Open champion Coco Gauff.
“As we see by some of the top players losing in the earlier matches anything can happen, so I don’t want to look that far,” Sabalenka replied when asked if she was now the title favourite.
“I’m just focusing match by match. I’m just trying to do my best and prepare myself as best I can for each match.”
The next test for her in Melbourne will be Amanda Anisimova who beat Paula Badosa 7-5, 6-4, in her fourth round match. The American entered the draw with the use of her protected ranking after taking a break from the Tour for mental health reasons last year.
Sabalenka has experienced difficulty against Anisimova in the past and currently trails their head-to-head 1-4. However, she won their most recent clash at the 2022 Italian Open.
“I’m happy that she’s back on tour. We had a lot of great matches against each other, always tough battles.” She said.
“I’m not expecting easy matches because when you’re getting to the last stages of the tournaments, it’s not going to be easy at all.
“I’m just trying to prepare myself as well as I can, and so make sure I bring my best level and I compete in the high level.”
Sabalenka’s fourth round match will take place on Saturday.
