{"id":856622,"date":"2026-08-13T13:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/856622\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T13:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:32:09","slug":"how-aryna-sabalenka-became-the-most-compelling-player-in-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/856622\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aryna Sabalenka Became the Most Compelling Player in Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">While critics focus on her meltdowns, fans, friends, and rivals appreciate that what you see is what you get. \u201cAt the end of the day, she\u2019s a very authentic person,\u201d says fellow pro Paula Badosa of Spain, Sabalenka\u2019s closest friend on tour. \u201cShe always shows the way she is. That\u2019s one of the things that makes her unique.\u201d Even as she has acknowledged that her emotions sometimes get the better of her, Sabalenka refuses to disavow her passion. \u201cI will never be completely in control,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I hold that negativity inside, it keeps growing, growing, growing, growing. It destroys you from the inside to the point that you don\u2019t have any energy and power to compete and to fight. So I\u2019ve found it really helpful to just yell something. I have to release it.\u201d She would love a designated racket-bludgeoning area at tournaments. \u201cBetween the sets, you just go to that room, you let it go, and you come back as a new person,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While critics focus on her meltdowns, fans, friends, and rivals appreciate that what you see is what you&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-856622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}