{"id":124027,"date":"2025-09-06T21:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T21:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124027\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T21:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T21:24:13","slug":"serena-williams-ex-coach-urges-aryna-sabalenka-to-get-past-mental-barrier-pressure-will-be-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124027\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams&#8217; ex-coach urges Aryna Sabalenka to get past mental barrier: \u2018Pressure will be big\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka will face Amanda Anisimova in the upcoming women&#8217;s singles 2025 US Open final, on Sunday in New York. Sabalenka defeated Jessica Pegula in her semifinal fixture, and Anisimova beat Naomi Osaka, setting up a rematch of their 2025 Wimbledon semifinal, where the World No. 9 won in three sets.<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GSE-SPO-TEN-WTA-2025-US-OPEN-DAY-12-258_1757173794727_1757173819422.jpg\" alt=\"Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after defeating Jessica Pegula.(Getty Images via AFP)\" title=\"Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after defeating Jessica Pegula.(Getty Images via AFP)\"\/>   Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after defeating Jessica Pegula.(Getty Images via AFP)    <\/p>\n<p>In terms of head-to-head, Anisimova leads 6-3 against Sabalenka. Serena Williams&#8217; former coach Patrick Mouratoglou feels that there be immense pressure on the World No. 1 in the upcoming title clash.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pressure will be big. There is more on the line than just a Grand Slam title. For Aryna (Sabalenka), it&#8217;s a very, very important match because she&#8217;s lost in the final of the Australian Open against Madison Keys. She lost in the final of Roland Garros against Coco (Gauff),&#8221; he said, in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But mentally, the way she processed during the final cost her the final two times. So it&#8217;s a great occasion for her to break that problem and sort it out. If she does, I think it&#8217;s going to help her tremendously in the next seasons and probably she will be able to win many more majors. If the same scenario happens again, it&#8217;s going to hurt her really bad,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Until her semifinal, Sabalenka had yet to drop a set, defeating Rebeka Masarova, Polina Kudermetova, Leylah Fernandez and Cristina Bucsa, and then lost one to Jessica Pegula. Meanwhile, Anisimova has hit the most winners (177) in the women&#8217;s singles in enw York, and also has the second-most aces (35). She has also converted the third-most break points (29).<\/p>\n<p>She is also the fifth American to reach the singles final at consecutive Slams since 2000, joining Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and the Williams sisters.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of the final, Sabalenka said, &#8220;I think I have to trust myself, and I have to go after my shots because I feel like in that match, I was doubting a lot my decisions, and that was the main thing that was bringing a lot of unforced errors, and I gave her a lot of opportunities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And, of course, she played incredible tennis, but I feel like I had my opportunities. I didn\u2019t use them. And I felt like the key for me [is] going to be just go there, of course, like, obviously fight, but also trust my decisions and. And go after my shots,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka will face Amanda Anisimova in the upcoming women&#8217;s singles 2025 US Open final, on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[87130,3228,4909,64,63,87129,85,747,1751,87131],"class_list":{"0":"post-124027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-2025-us-open","9":"tag-amanda-anisimova","10":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-sabalenka-vs-anisimova","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-us-open","17":"tag-us-open-final"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}