{"id":764332,"date":"2026-06-27T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764332\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T08:38:11","slug":"i-understand-why-some-people-think-im-a-bitch-world-no-1-aryna-sabalenka-on-screaming-stunt-matches-and-why-shes-much-nicer-off-court-aryna-sabalenka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764332\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I understand why some people think I\u2019m a bitch\u2019: world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka on screaming, stunt matches, and why she\u2019s much nicer off court | Aryna Sabalenka"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s less than a month since Aryna Sabalenka told the world that she felt like walking away from tennis<\/a>. The world No 1 had suffered an almighty implosion. Sabalenka is as famous for her implosions as she is for her on-court ferocity. But this was a different level.<\/p>\n

She had been playing at her imperious best in the French Open, one of tennis\u2019s four major tournaments. Winner after winner from the back of the court, and when she bullied her opponents back to the baseline she\u2019d dupe them with the most delicate drop-shot. In\u00a0the last 16 against Naomi Osaka<\/a> she looked invincible. And then came the quarter-final. By now, all her main rivals were out. The 28-year-old had a clear path through to winning her fifth grand slam singles title. Again, she was playing well against the world\u2019s No 25, Diana\u00a0Shnaider. Sabalenka won the first set easily, 6-3, and was 5-3 up in the second set. Victory was an inevitability. And then it happened. One game lost. Then another. And another. The wind had picked up, playing conditions got ever worse, the organisers failed to close the roof. And Sabalenka was walloping shot after shot out of court.<\/p>\n

By now Sabalenka was fighting herself as much as her opponent and the wind. She screamed at her coaching team in frustration, as she so often does. But the abuse she levelled at herself was even harsher. Eventually she lost 10 games on the trot against a player few non-tennis aficionados had heard of. Shnaider won the final two sets 7-5 and 6-0. When she finally addressed the press, Sabalenka was still in a state of shock. \u201cI just want to quit tennis right now,\u201d she said, admitting that she had fallen into a \u201cdeep, dark hole\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the same tournament, the world men\u2019s No 1 player, Jannik Sinner, had suffered a comparable fate, but he was physically unwell<\/a>. This was different. It was one of the great collapses in tennis history. But perhaps what was most astonishing was that it was also not entirely surprising. We have learned to expect the unexpected with Aryna Sabalenka. Implosions, explosions, offensive comments<\/a>, scandal-hit relationships, accusations of gamesmanship, allegations of undermining the women\u2019s game, reconciliatory on-court dances \u2013 the Belarusian is always just a few shots from the next controversy.<\/p>\n

Today, she\u2019s in Berlin and we chat by video link ahead of Wimbledon<\/a>, the next grand slam in the calendar. The Paris meltdown is still raw, but it\u2019s not a topic she wants to avoid. If anything, she\u2019d prefer to talk it out of her system. The funny thing is, she says, she waited for ages before addressing the press to make sure she\u2019d regained control. She grins. \u201cI actually took an hour and a half before doing that press conference and I thought, like, OK, I\u2019m better now. And then I just went there and I said, \u2018I want to quit tennis!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Did she come away, thinking, \u201cMy God, what did I\u00a0just say?\u201d Another smile. \u201cNo. Actually I thought I\u2019d\u00a0been pretty good.\u201d Really? \u201cYes. What d\u2019you expect me to say if you ask me how I feel at a moment like that? \u2018I\u00a0feel great, I feel fantastic.\u2019?\u201d Of course not. Sabalenka is Sabalenka. She\u2019s always going to tell it straight. \u201cI\u00a0went there and I said the facts. Why would they keep the roof open when the conditions are insane? When it\u2019s almost like a hurricane and the tennis was ugly? I said everything that makes sense. I respected my opponent. I wasn\u2019t rude to her or anything. I didn\u2019t want to go there and say something ridiculous like I\u00a0said last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, last year. Another implosion \u2013 and another explosion. This time the implosion was in the final of the French Open<\/a> against the American Coco Gauff. She had been one set up against the American, and went on to lose by two sets to one. The real drama happened after the match, again in the press conference. Sabalenka said it was the \u201cworst final I ever played\u201d, adding: \u201cI think she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes.\u201d It was ugly, graceless and disrespectful.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka tells me it was so much worse than anything that happened in Paris this year. She felt ashamed of herself. \u201cThat was tough. When the emotions settled, I just came to my team saying, \u2018Guys, can you believe I said that?\u2019 I felt so mean and I felt not like myself.\u201d So what did she do? \u201cI waited a bit of time and then I\u00a0messaged Coco apologising and saying that of course I\u00a0respect her. Coco\u2019s such a nice girl. I got lucky, because she understands that. I feel like if ever she goes nuts on me, I\u2019ll be, like, \u2018Girl, throw it on me. I get it. You\u2019re good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhen you see me for the first time, you\u2019re probably going to think I\u2019m a bitch because of\u00a0my face Photograph: Emmie America\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

I\u2019d not expected to warm to Sabalenka. It\u2019s not that I\u00a0dislike short-fused, occasionally badly behaved tennis players. Serena Williams, who had more than her share of on-court confrontations, is one of my heroes. But Sabalenka is always breaking rackets, berating her box, saying she\u2019s been wronged in one way or another. In\u00a0person, though, she\u2019s unrecognisable \u2013 smiley, funny and self-aware about her flaws.<\/p>\n

Her reconciliation with Gauff showed her at her best. Sabalenka has always been fond of a dance. Sometimes her dancing is funny (jokey dance-offs with Novak Djokovic)<\/a>, sometimes preening, and occasionally joyous. As was the case here. She and Gauff showed off their moves<\/a> to Bob Sinclar\u2019s Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now). Sabalenka captioned her TikTok: \u201cTikTok Dances always had a way of bringing people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka doing a TikTok dance with US player Coco Gauff during a practice session at Wimbledon last year. Photograph: Kin Cheung\/AP<\/p>\n

How did the dance come about? \u201cWe just scheduled the practice. And I was just, like, \u2018Girl, don\u2019t you think it would be fun like to do a dance and loosen it up a bit, so people in the community understand that we\u2019re good?\u2019\u201d They did the dance a month after the fallout. Did it take much rehearsing? \u201cNo. I knew the dance, and Coco\u2019s so talented she picked it up really quickly. It was two tries and we\u2019d done it. It was very cool. It was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fun is not necessarily a word you\u2019d associate with Sabalenka because she\u2019s so intense in matches. She also understands why people might have preconceptions about her. Sabalenka tells a story about her best friend in tennis, the Spaniard Paula Badosa, who can also seem intimidatingly frosty on court. \u201cWhen we met, I\u00a0was, like, \u2018Oh, I thought you were a bitch!\u2019 And she\u2019s, like, \u2018I\u00a0thought you were a bitch, too.\u2019 I was, like, \u2018Well, I\u00a0guess that\u2019s not true, so we can be friends.\u2019 She\u2019s, like, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re actually quite similar.\u2019 I guess it\u2019s just the attitude that we carry on court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka says there\u2019s another thing that makes people think she\u2019s unfriendly. Her face. \u201cWhen you see me for the first time, you\u2019re probably going to think that I\u2019m a bitch because of my Slavic face. It doesn\u2019t help with that.\u201d What does she mean? She exaggerates her natural features, and suddenly she\u2019s severe, unsmiling, long\u2011and-sour-faced. You wouldn\u2019t mess with her. \u201cWhen I\u2019m\u00a0walking with this flat face and no emotions, I can look very aggressive. So I understand why some people think I\u2019m a bitch. When you get to know me better you understand that it\u2019s just something I was born with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka grew up in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, a country that gained independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. She came from a\u00a0sporty family. Her grandfather had been a boxer and her father, Sergey, was briefly a professional ice-hockey player, retiring aged 19 after a serious car accident. He went on to make a living in the auto-repair business, while her mother studied economics and worked in the corporate world.<\/p>\n

The young Sabalenka was strong and spirited. As a little girl, she says her parents were determined to find her an activity to keep her out of trouble. \u201cI was a really active kid. I wouldn\u2019t do random stuff that kids would do back then, like smoking. Kids were rough in Belarus. They wanted me to live a healthier life. One day when I was six, my dad was passing by tennis courts and he thought, \u2018Why not?\u2019 And I tried it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was he a good player? \u201cIn tennis? No. But he encouraged me. He wasn\u2019t that type of parent who would jump into the process and become my coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask her what it was like growing up in Belarus, a\u00a0country with a population of 9 million led by the autocratic Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for 32 years. \u201cI think people there are the kindest people. You can let your kid be outside till late and nothing\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019s beautiful. It\u2019s super green, and I loved growing up there.\u201d She pauses. \u201cIt can be tough in some ways.\u201d Another pause. How? \u201cCoaches can be really tough on you. You have to be almost perfect for them to even give you a compliment.\u201d What did they criticise her for? \u201cI was overhitting the ball and I\u00a0couldn\u2019t find my targets. They called me stupid. But if I\u2019m stupid and they were coaching me, what were they? But, overall, people who live there are super kind and will always help you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was she academic at school? \u201cI was clever!\u201d She laughs, embarrassed. \u201cIt sounds so funny, \u2018I was clever\u2019. But I was very, very good at school. I had the highest marks till I started training more and skipping some classes. My grades got lower, but they were still closer to the highest grades. I was super smart in maths and physics. But I shifted my focus on to tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adored the game from the off. \u201cI love that you can\u00a0change anything at any time. You have to win 24 points to win a set and it\u2019s two sets. And if something goes wrong you still have the third set. I love that everything is in your hands. It\u2019s not like rhythmic gymnastics, when they rate your performance and winning depends on judges. I love the competition. I\u00a0love to win. I love the feeling of improving, of winning the trophies that you\u2019ve been dreaming of, and the life that you\u2019re living. I love it and I\u2019m definitely not quitting.\u201d Point made.<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhenever I feel like I\u2019m holding too much, I just throw the racket, yell something, let it go Photograph: Emmie America\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

It\u2019s typical of Sabalenka to say you have to win 24 points to win a set. Twenty-four points is the minimum it takes to win a set, and is incredibly unlikely (you\u2019d have to win 6-0). But this says everything about her mentality. You sense she does go out expecting to win\u00a0every single point. And the fact that she doesn\u2019t win every point (let alone game, set and match) is at the heart of her frustrations.<\/p>\n

She turned professional aged 17 in 2015, and won her first WTA tournament in 2017 at the Mumbai Open. Two years later, her father died suddenly at the age of 43 after contracting meningitis. She was devastated. In the Netflix tennis series Break Point<\/a>, she said that they had a shared dream \u2013 that she would win two grand slam titles by the time she was 25. It\u00a0became an obsession. She felt she had to do it for him. On screen, she said, \u201cNow I\u2019m\u00a024 and there is zero in my pocket.\u201d She was beginning to panic. Sergey was her biggest motivation; without him she wouldn\u2019t be here. But in 2023, at 24, she\u00a0won her first major \u2013 the Australian Open. And a\u00a0year later, she successfully defended the title. She also won the US Open in the same year and repeated the feat in 2025.<\/p>\n

From the earliest days, Sabalenka\u2019s strength was her strength. She is 6ft tall, broad, and unbelievably powerful. She could muscle her way to victory from the baseline, dominating rallies from the back of the court with flat, skiddy groundstrokes that routinely equal or exceed the ball speeds of the top players in the men\u2019s game. When she won the US Open in 2024, her average forehand was 80mph, faster than Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner and Djokovic at the time. Her fastest serve, at 133mph, is the second fastest in the history<\/a> of the women\u2019s game, and is only 3mph slower than Alcaraz\u2019s quickest.<\/p>\n

In Break Point, before she had her first grand slam triumph, she said her emotions had destroyed her game. \u201cI would just start overreacting to everything \u2026 I didn\u2019t want to be an emotional child on court any more. I had to learn how to keep my head in it, because, when I lost my cool, my opponents could see what was going on in my head and they would step in and play better.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask her how she feels about this quote now. \u201cI\u00a0think it\u2019s always going to be on ongoing battle with my emotions. Life throws stuff at you you\u2019ve never experienced before and you\u2019re just going through different things for the first time. You don\u2019t even know how you\u2019re going to react, and you\u2019re always fighting. And I have to say that since that series was recorded I have improved a lot. I\u2019m definitely much better on court right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markNow I\u2019m in better control, but, of\u00a0course, still I do things that I\u2019m not proud ofStylist: Roberto Johnson. Hair: Leah Caso at The Wall Group. Makeup: Jojo Marchevsky at The Wall Group. Clothing credits: Vest top: Nike. Corset: Christian Cowan. Shorts: AKNVAS. Jewellery (main and third image): Material Good. Jacket: Ferrari. Shorts and sweater: Adrian Cashmere. Ring and earrings (second and final image): Dinosaur Designs. Watch: Audemars Piguet. Shoes: Nike Photograph: Emmie America\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

What has changed more than anything is her attitude to her emotionalism. Today, she\u2019s more accepting of it. She says it\u2019s simply part of who she is. \u201cEven if sometimes you see me getting emotional or yelling at my box, it\u2019s something that I need. It\u2019s something that we spoke about with my team; that whenever I\u00a0feel like I\u2019m holding too much, just throw the racket, yell something, let it go. Now I\u2019m in better control, but, of\u00a0course, still I do things that I\u2019m not proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennis is regarded as one of the most refined and bourgeois of ball sports. But it could well be the most attritional. Whereas most mass-appeal ballgames are team sports, in singles tennis you\u2019re out there on your own. Every rally results in a point won or lost. Tennis has broken so many players mentally over the years. John\u00a0McEnroe threw tantrums to cope with the pressure,\u00a0Serena Williams once threatened to shove a\u00a0tennis ball down a lineswoman\u2019s throat<\/a>, and Alexander Zverev struck the umpire\u2019s chair<\/a> multiple times with his racket. Last October, at the Wuhan Open, Sabalenka hurled her racket across the court towards the player benches, narrowly avoiding a ballboy. Again, it was mid meltdown (she had been leading Jessica Pegula 5-2 in the final set before losing 7-6).<\/p>\n

I tell her I interviewed Bj\u00f6rn Borg, the tennis great whose Samurai-like refusal to show emotion on court ended up destroying him. He walked away from the game at his peak and had a breakdown lasting decades. Her green eyes light up, and she nods passionately. \u201cSee. Everyone says, \u2018You have to be in control, you have to be flat with your emotions, don\u2019t show anything.\u2019 And I found it was destroying me from the inside. You\u2019re just holding so much. So I asked my team to be OK with me yelling at them; like, just throwing this aggression to someone that can handle it, just so I can continue fighting on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markIn real life, I try to avoid any conflict. I like to spread the joy. In real life, I\u2019m a different person<\/p>\n

Her screaming (whether at her box or herself in frustration, or in delight after hitting a winner) has been measured at 100 decibels, the threshold where prolonged exposure can cause permanent hearing damage. She has been accused of using it as a weapon to destabilise her opponents, something she has always denied. I ask if she\u2019s a screamer in everyday life. If\u00a0you\u00a0were in a traffic jam, I say, frustrated as hell, would you release one of your 100-decibel shrieks?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo!\u201d she says, horrified. \u201cI think it\u2019s really difficult to get into conflict with me. You have to do something really, really painful. You have to betray me. In real life, I don\u2019t like conflict. I like to spread the joy and feel the joy around me. I\u2019m a different person.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she thinks that\u2019s partly because tennis provides the perfect outlet for her aggression. \u201cI\u2019m throwing everything on the court. So when I retire I\u2019ll have to find something where I can throw it out. Maybe boxing.\u201d Seriously? \u201cYes. I\u2019ve done boxing for a little time, but it can be tricky because you can get injured. Maybe after tennis I\u2019ll become a boxer and a model.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she talks, I\u2019m looking at a humungous owl\u2011like diamond perched on a delicate band. It\u2019s her engagement ring, with an estimated value of $1m. \u201cIt\u2019s a rock,\u201d she says. I then look up to her face and see two more rocks hanging from her ears. Are they matching? \u201cNo, they are four-and-a-half carat each. The ring is 12 carats.\u201d Around her neck she\u2019s wearing a gold tennis racket, dotted with pink, yellow and green diamonds. She looks as if she\u2019s just raided Tiffany\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Another classic Sabalenka moment was in one of her happier post-match conferences after winning the Brisbane Open this January. From the centre of the court, she looked up to her boyfriend, Brazilian businessman Georgios Frangulis, and said: \u201cThank you to my boyfriend \u2026 Hopefully, soon I\u2019ll call you something else, right. Let\u2019s just put an extra pressure<\/a>.\u201d Sure enough, she got what she wanted. Two months later, he proposed before the Indian Wells Open in California and presented her with the oval-cut engagement ring. She was so chuffed with the ring, she wore it for matches. \u201cI got a little scar after playing. So since then, I\u2019ve not played with the ring on.\u201d Frangulis, who founded acai chain Oakberry, is estimated to be worth between $75m and $100m. Sabalenka has won\u00a0almost $50m in prize money and is worth an estimated $22m.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka with her fiance Georgios Frangulis after winning the Miami Open in March this year. Photograph: Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Her off-court life has almost made as many headlines as her tennis. When she began a relationship at 23 with ice-hockey star Konstantin Koltsov, 17 years her senior, his wife and the mother of his three sons, Yulia\u00a0Mikhailova, reportedly tagged Sabalenka in a\u00a0family photo on Instagram with the caption loosely translated as: \u201cAn appeal to all girls hanging on other people\u2019s husbands with babies in the family! It\u2019s vile!\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2024, Koltsov took his own life in Florida at the start of the Miami Open in which Sabalenka was playing. She issued a statement saying: \u201cKonstantin\u2019s death is an unthinkable tragedy, and while we were no longer together, my heart is broken.\u201d They are thought to have split up a few weeks earlier. Mikhailova issued a\u00a0statement saying she had forgiven Sabalenka, that her earlier post had been \u201cdictated by emotions\u201d and that the tennis player was a \u201cnice girl\u201d. She said: \u201cSabalenka treated my children well, so I have a normal attitude towards her.\u201d When Sabalenka and Frangulis went public about their relationship in 2024, his wife, Isabella Armentano, suggested they had been having an affair for a while.<\/p>\n

Not all the controversies in Sabalenka\u2019s life have been of her own making. Ukrainian tennis players won\u2019t shake hands with her (or other Russian and Belarusian players). It makes for painful\u00a0viewing. \u00a0On occasion, Sabalenka has waited at the net for the handshake, which has not been forthcoming. It has been suggested she did this\u00a0deliberately to highlight\u00a0the hostility, but Sabalenka insists she had simply forgotten.<\/p>\n

Does she feel she has been punished for coming from Belarus, which has supported Russia in its war against Ukraine? \u201cI understand why they\u2019re doing that. But I\u00a0just hope that we could fight it together because nobody wants the war. Like, nobody. Nobody voted for the war to happen. Everyone wants peace and everything to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine refuses to shake Sabalenka\u2019s hand at the end of a match in Paris, 2023. Photograph: Frey\/TPN\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Does she think it\u2019s right to bring the war on to the court? \u201cNo. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right. I feel by shaking hands you show respect to another person as an athlete not as a passport holder of a certain country. But I can\u2019t blame them. They are fighting for peace in their country. I just hate when politics becomes involved with sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

But many of the controversies have been entirely of her own making. Not least last December\u2019s Battle of the Sexes<\/a> match against Australian \u201cbad boy\u201d Nick\u00a0Kyrgios (as well as frequent appalling antics on court, he has admitted to assaulting a former girlfriend). It was\u00a0promoted as a replay of the historic 1973 match in which Billie Jean King beat retired player and self-proclaimed \u201cmale chauvinist pig\u201d Bobby Riggs. Many sports writers advised against the Sabalenka-Kyrgios match, pointing out that these were different times, the battle for equal pay had largely been won (women get paid the same in grand slams, though not always in lesser tournaments) and that there was nothing to be gained and everything to lose. At the time, Kyrgios was unfit and ranked 671st in the world. Sabalenka said she would do her utmost \u201cto kick his ass\u201d but failed miserably, losing 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka with Australian Nick Kyrgios on the eve of the Battle of the Sexes match in Dubai last year. Photograph: Fadel Senna\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

I ask whether she thought the critics who anticipated that it would be a damp squib and reflect badly on women\u2019s tennis were proved right. She shakes her head. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. For some people, you\u2019re never good enough. Growing up in Belarus taught me not to give a fuck about that. But there are also people who understood what we were doing. We wanted to show you can do fun stuff and bring more eyes on tennis. The numbers were insane on the views.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is not quite true. While 30,000 people watched the King v Riggs match live and an estimated 90 million people worldwide on TV, the \u201creplay\u201d was watched in front of an estimated 6,000 in a Dubai arena that holds 17,000 and no broadcast viewing figures have been published.<\/p>\n

I ask Sabalenka how she answers people who say it did a disservice to women\u2019s tennis to see the world\u2019s No 1 female player beaten by a man ranked 671st in the world. This is when I really see Sabalenka, the scrapper. \u201cIt\u2019s so ridiculous to say that; the guy played grand slam finals. He was coming back after injury and he has been in the top 10. He was the biggest server, the biggest showman on court. How can you compare a regular 600-and-something ATP player to Nick Kyrgios?\u201d<\/p>\n

She has a point, but again it\u2019s not quite true. Kyrgios\u2019s highest singles ranking was 13th and his biggest serve is 143mph, 20mph slower than the world\u2019s fastest. Even\u00a0so, Sabalenka sure knows how to defend herself. She smiles\u00a0when I say so. \u201cIt was just a ridiculous comment from someone outside the tennis bubble. I\u00a0punched them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka in the quarter-final at Wimbledon last year. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Sabalenka loves her fighting talk. In the press conference after the Paris meltdown, she was asked what she was likely to do next. \u201cYou know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything?\u201d she replied. \u201cProbably I will spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff.\u201d Is that what she did? No,\u00a0she says disappointedly, because by then it was too late. \u201cThat\u2019s the best therapy. But I was not in the mood to search for something to smash.\u201d She suggests that, in future, tournament organisers provide a room where players can go for a good smash-up.<\/p>\n

Great idea, I say, they could just leave, say, 50 rackets in the room to smash. The green eyes light up again. \u201cOr we could do it Greek style. With plates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka has a tattoo of a tiger on her left forearm every bit as prominent as the 12-carat rock on her finger. I\u00a0ask when she had it done. \u201cWhen I was 17. I was born\u00a0in the Year of the Tiger. I was trying to stay away from tattoos for so long, and then I started to dream about tigers nonstop. It\u2019s a reminder that, no matter what, I have to get stronger and to fight till the very last moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does she think she could still be one of the all-time tennis greats? Well, she says, she\u2019ll have to get a move on, and win a few more grand slams to join the elite of the elite. At 28, she\u2019s in her prime and if she puts her mind to it (or, rather, doesn\u2019t overthink it), she could be the dominant force in the women\u2019s game for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s still thinking about what happened in Paris, and how best to process it as Wimbledon is about to start. \u201cIt was a slap in the face,\u201d she says. Does she think she had a panic attack of sorts? \u201cNo, I don\u2019t want to call it something that big. It was just that I forgot how to do everything. I am a strong believer that everything happens for\u00a0a\u00a0reason. Maybe, later on, I will see the reason and I\u2019ll\u00a0look back and say, \u2018Oh, thank you.\u2019 Sometimes you\u00a0need to get slapped in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n