Double tenante du titre, n°1 mondiale et titrée à Brisbane lors de son tournoi de reprise, Aryna Sabalenka est la claire favorite de cette édition 2025 de l'Open d'Australie. Sa quête d'un triplé historique avait bien débuté contre Sloane Stephens. La Biélorusse a logiquement enchainé ce mercredi une septième victoire de suite contre Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, 6-3, 7-5. Sabalenka n'a pas livré son meilleur match, notamment au service, mais elle a su faire le job pour foncer au troisième tour. Elle y affrontera Clara Tauson.
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00:00Yeah, I'm super happy to have finished this much in straight sets. She played
00:08incredible tennis, especially in the second set and I'm really happy I was
00:11able to turn around that set.
00:14Question.
00:15Hi, Thomas from the Danish news agency. You're meeting Clarence Halsund next. How well do you know her and what are your thoughts on her as a player?
00:24I mean, I think we've never played against each other, but I saw her matches and I think I'll just leave that part for my team to figure it and we're definitely going to watch her game.
00:38And I know that she's a very aggressive player, serving well, hitting pretty heavy shots, so it's going to be a great battle. Really looking forward to face her for the first time.
00:49Charlie.
00:51Just wondered, what do you eat before matches? What are your go-to's?
00:56Oh, I've never actually got asked this question. What do I eat before the matches? So you want to know where my power comes from? There is no secret, it's just good genetics. I'm so grateful for that for my family.
01:17No, usually I go for, if it's early match, I just stay with the breakfast and I eat porridge and egg white omelette. And then I have a snack like an hour and a half before match, like a protein bar with coffee.
01:34Nothing special. If I have to go for lunch, I stay pretty simple just to avoid the Roland-Garros situation. So I stay with chicken and rice and some salad. And then in the evening I go for meat.
01:51What did you eat before Roland-Garros?
01:55Like a day before, I had pretty rare meat. Usually I go for medium well, and I asked for medium well, but I think it wasn't cooked enough. My stomach didn't like that. I felt really bad on the next day, so now I'm making sure that the meat is cooked well. And before the match, nothing really heavy.
02:23What about during a match?
02:25During the match? Yeah, I have a bar with me full of good carbs and protein and a little bit of fat in it. Like a pretty good bar. Same as food and the energy stays pretty long.
02:49But yeah, I only go for it if I feel like I need it. But usually I'm not eating during the match. I feel so heavy in the stomach.
02:57How?
02:58Now I want to eat.
03:03Hi Irina. I wanted to ask, what was your thought when you saw you'd be playing at 11 a.m.? Do you like playing early in the day? Do you prefer playing at night or somewhere in between?
03:17Well, when I saw I play the first match, I was thinking like, no, it's not going to be full crowd. But then I saw a lot of people out there and I was so happy.
03:26I mean, I like to play both, you know, like 7 p.m., but not second after men's. I hate it. You can just start at midnight.
03:36But also I like the early matches because if you win, you're done for the day and you can go, you can chill, you can go shopping probably because the next day, there is no match on the next day.
03:48Or you can go for a good dinner, you know. So I prefer, I mean, I don't know. I cannot pick which one is my favorite.
03:55I enjoyed your on-court interview when you talked about the crowd and I was wondering how it is like, you're so beloved here in Australia, but obviously the neutral tennis fan enjoys an upset sometimes.
04:07Do you feel kind of betrayed sometimes during the matches that they don't cheer for you?
04:12No, no, I understand. They want to watch a great match, great battle. They want to see like probably like three sets, battles, you know.
04:19Nobody really interested in seeing like 6-0, 6-0, you know. So I understand that.
04:24And also like during the match, they show on the TV, how do you call it? Always forget.
04:33Poster. Thank you. Always forget this word. Posters with like my name or like drawing of the tiger, you know. So I feel the support anyways and I understand that.
04:52But I hope the next match they're going to cheer for me. Please, come on guys.
04:56There'll be some pains also. They'll be against you.
04:58It's okay. I got it. I got it. I have my team. I'm going to ask my team to scream as loud as possible.
05:05Okay, highlight and then we'll come to you.
05:08Is there any, there are a lot of numbers in tennis. Everything is tracked now. Are there any statistics or numbers that interest you that you will look at either after a match or over the course of a season to see how they're going for you?
05:24I mean, I like to see my serve percentage. I loved the statistic of my forehand at the youth open. I was like, okay, good to know.
05:35Speed. Yeah, the speed of my forehand, the average speed.
05:41But usually I leave it for my team and then they correct it and then we practice some stuff if something didn't work well and statistics wasn't on my side.
05:54But usually for me, the most important is percentage on the first serve and first serve win and second serve win percentage. So mostly about the serve.
06:06Do you ever see a number and you think that can't be right or it's very different from what your perception was or what you expected to see?
06:16I mean, of course I expected to see 100% first serve, 100% win on the first serve, but you know, usually it's not like that.
06:25Yeah, I mean, sometimes when I see that my first serve is pretty low, I try to adjust a little bit and go maybe not that full on the first serve just to get the percentage back and get the feeling back.
06:37But usually, you know, I'm just concentrating on myself during the match and not trying to overthink stuff, you know.
06:44Okay, we'll do a couple more in English.
06:51You spoke a bit earlier on in the week about how proud you are to be from Belarus and I guess a bit of sadness there about not having a flag next to your name.
06:59I was just wondering if you wanted to expand on that at all or have any reflections on that.
07:04Well, as I said, I mean, I have no control on that.
07:07You know, I cannot just go out there and push someone to have a flag next to my name, whatever the decision is.
07:16I mean, it is how it is.
07:18But yeah, as I said, I was always proud to represent Belarus in terms of, you know, it's a small country and I made it from a very small country.
07:29It's not like I was practicing in the States or in Spain.
07:32And I was there and yeah, I was proud to represent such a small country and I felt like I was kind of like inspiration for the next generation.
07:42And I was kind of like motivating people from there, like tennis athletes and not having a flag.
07:50Once again, it is how it is.
07:53If they're going to bring it back, I'm going to be happy.
07:55If not, then it's okay.
07:56Okay, two more in English, Charlie, and we'll finish with you at the front.
08:00Charlie.
08:02You recently changed the agency that looks after commercial interests, that sort of thing.
08:07I was wondering if you could kind of talk through the rationale for switching.
08:11Well, yeah, it's a tricky question, but I was looking for building my brand and kind of like wanted a little bit more than IMG was served for me.
08:32And I wasn't happy with the service.
08:33And yeah, there was tension between me and some of the people out there.
08:42I'm happy that I was able to finish that chapter of my life and I'm glad with the new beginning.
08:50And I hope to build something bigger than just the momentum deals.
08:58Okay, Oscar.
09:00Yes, Rina, here, right here.
09:01Good to see you again here.
09:03You need some stats, actually.
09:05Your first, second server win was about 58 percent.
09:08Your fastest serve today is about 183 kilometers per hour.
09:12That must be really fascinating to you as well.
09:15My question is, actually, you mentioned a couple of times that you won twice here already, well sought after.
09:20And you said the third time, the third title here in a row will be sweet, but it's not really something you think about.
09:25Step by step, you try to win more.
09:26But is it really something in your vision right now, given that, you know, after round two, some of your tough opponents are gone already?
09:33What do you make of it?
09:35Who's gone?
09:37Quite a few.
09:39Okay, I mean, oh yeah, I saw she lost.
09:41Very sad to see.
09:43But listen, it's a slam, you know.
09:46Not everyone can handle these emotions.
09:48And once again, as you see, there are so many players who are playing really well in these conditions.
09:54And it's not like if they're gone, it means that, okay, it's easy for me.
10:01No, it's not.
10:03I have to go there, I have to compete, I have to fight.
10:05And today's match proved that, you know, girls can go there and just play without any fear and just, you know, without anything to lose.
10:12And they can put you in a really uncomfortable position.
10:17So you have to go out there and fight and compete and show your best.
10:20And as you said, yeah, I prefer to focus day by day, step by step.
10:25And I really enjoy being out there and compete.
10:30And this is something I'm focusing on about the first serve speed.
10:34You know, I think I was too much into that machine.
10:40And in these conditions, probably you're not going to serve your fastest serve because ball's getting pretty heavy.
10:46And when I stopped looking at that statistic, I started serving better.
10:53And I was actually serving some heavy serves.
10:58So I think I'm not going to look at that statistic anymore.
11:04And I'm going to focus step by step.
11:06And yeah, hopefully I can do really well here.
11:15Yeah.