{"id":187801,"date":"2025-10-09T10:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187801\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T10:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:17:12","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-tells-novak-djokovic-to-thank-her-if-he-wins-in-shanghai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187801\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka tells Novak Djokovic to thank her if he wins in Shanghai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> has revealed details of the practice sessions she had with Novak Djokovic in Greece and urged the 24-time Grand Slam champion to confirm she was a good hitting partner.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka met up with Djokovic while she spent time away in Greece with her boyfriend, Georgios Frangulis, following her US Open victory last month.<\/p>\n

Djokovic has recently moved to Greece with his young family and appears to have built a strong bond with Sabalenka, as she told Tennis365 in Wuhan that she enjoyed competitive hitting sessions on court with the former world No 1.<\/p>\n

She even went as far as to joke that Djokovic will need to thank her if he wins this week\u2019s ATP 1000 tournament in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he was really competitive, and he was screaming when he was winning a point against me,\u201d said Sabalenka with a smile.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/p>\n

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\u201cI won a lot of points against him for the record. I hope he\u2019s gonna confirm that!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe practised a couple of times. I hope I was a great hitting partner. So far, he\u2019s winning in Shanghai. I guess I was, it was a good one. I really hope he\u2019s gonna go all the way. He\u2019s gonna win the tournament. And I\u2019m gonna say it was all down to me!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some fun time in Greece. I love them, like him and Elena (Djokovic\u2019s wife). He\u2019s always open to giving me advice. They are so fun. We went for dinner. We had so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was pushed all the way in her opening match played in sweltering conditions at the Wuhan Open, as she eventually came through 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.<\/p>\n

The world No 1 struggled in the first set and showed plenty of signs of frustration as she missed too many balls before finding her form to the delight of her fans in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am super happy with the win,\u201d stated Sabalenka. \u201cShe played incredible tennis in the first set. Not much I could do in that set, but I\u2019m really happy that I found my rhythm and I was able to get the win. Yeah, happy to be to be through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to find my rhythm and going into this match, I knew it\u2019s not going to be an easy one.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s moving well, making the opponent work for every point. And I had a little break. Yeah, I did a great preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first set, I was more like frustrated with myself, but it was kind of like good frustration, because it gave me that emotional push to to keep keep trying and to keep fighting and to serve better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic celebrates<\/p>\n

Sabalenka also suggested the humid conditions in China will be a real challenge for the rest of the week, with the weather in Wuhan set to be very hot until Sunday\u2019s final, when temperatures are due to cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I thought that this year, the US Open was quite humid, but when I came here, I realised that US Open was not humid at all,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe humidity is insane and I think this year, conditions are incredibly, incredibly tough in Wuhan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I did a great preparation in Greece, and I came here I had like, four or five days to prepare for these conditions for this world, but the court is definitely slower, and, yeah, it\u2019s heavier conditions, but I think I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Our \u2018real\u2019 WTA tennis rankings revealed \u2013 Sabalenka & Swiatek star, Gauff drops, Raducanu climbs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka has revealed details of the practice sessions she had with Novak Djokovic in Greece and urged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-187801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}