Aryna Sabalenka has spoken of the \u201cbest lesson\u201d she has learned from Novak Djokovic as the two of them continue to spend plenty of time together.<\/p>\n
The friendship between the pair appears to be one of the best on the tour with them regularly practicing together but also seen going for double dates with their respective partners.<\/p>\n
When asked about her friendship with the 24-time Slam champion, Sabalenka said being able to have a wider perspective was the \u201cbest lesson\u201d she had learned from Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow to stay settled and how to look at everything as you\u2019re looking from the outside on the situation on the court, off the court,\u201d she said. \u201cJust to, like, be able to sit back and look at everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of like it\u2019s not you looking, it\u2019s someone else looking at your situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the best lesson that you could take from Novak.\u201d<\/p>\n
MORE ON DJOKOVIC ON T365<\/strong><\/p>\n Hellenic Championship draw: Djokovic the favourite as Musetti makes late-gasp ATP Finals bid<\/strong><\/a> That ability to take a step back and analyse things with a clear head would have come in handy in what has sometimes been a challenging season for the world No.1.<\/p>\n Before the US Open, Sabalenka had failed to add to her Grand Slam tally and admitted it was \u201ctough\u201d to fall so close to the prize each time.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it was tough. It was really tough. It was tough lessons. But at the end I think it was much-needed lessons. I had to learn how to control myself even better,\u201d the 27-year-old said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though I improved a lot in that part of the game, still, you know, not good enough. I think in those big finals, that\u2019s one thing that was missing, was my emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cI think especially after Roland Garros and the media and everything that happened after the match, I just had to sit back and look at everything from the side, yeah, and take better control over my emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter winning US Open, I was actually quite grateful for those lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n Her final challenge of the year is to try and win the WTA Finals for the first time in her career. Her only final appearance came in 2022 while she has reached the semi-finals in the previous two years.<\/p>\n Sabalenka said she prepared for the season finale as if it were another Grand Slam.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no difference in my preparation. It\u2019s also one of the biggest tournaments. I have a little time between the last tournament I played and Riyadh. I had few days off, then I was back on court practicing. Yeah, it\u2019s the biggest tournament of the year. My preparation is the same way here as to the Grand Slams.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty intense. I really hope I can play well here.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabalenka will begin her tournament against No.8 seed Jasmine Paolini on Sunday.<\/p>\n Read next: What Jannik Sinner\u2019s Paris Masters demolition of Alexander Zverev means for his world No 1 bid<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Aryna Sabalenka reveals \u2018best lesson\u2019 she learned from Novak Djokovic as off-court friendship continues<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka has spoken of the \u201cbest lesson\u201d she has learned from Novak Djokovic as the two of them continue to spend plenty of time together. The friendship between the pair appears to be one of the best on the tour with them regularly practicing together but also seen going for double dates with their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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