“A time that comes to mind where I had to show my resilience and where I was really close to saying, ‘OK, I’m done’, was two or three years ago when I was double-faulting non-stop and everything seemed to be going wrong,” she added.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘OK, it’s time for me to give up and to quit … it’s time for me to retire. But then I realized I have so much love for the sport and there are so many things behind the scenes that I just couldn’t give up. I had to stay strong and try one more time, try something else to figure out my problem, and I think that was the turning point for me in my career.”
Now as an established champion, Sabalenka isn’t taking her life for granted. On the contrary, she’s found a way to balance the competitive drive with her off-court well-being, a key ingredient in her rise to dominance on the tour.
