AFP at the Prudential NextGen Aces event in Hong Hong <\/a>this week, Sabalenka credited Djokovic\u2019s advice with helping her defend Flushing Meadows. Sabalenka said high-intensity training with Djokovic prepared her for facing top contenders at the US Open.<\/p>\n\u201c[Novak is] a great guy and he\u2019s very open. You can ask anything and he can give you advice,\u201d Sabalenka said of Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s such an open guy and I love practicing with him because for me it\u2019s such high-intensity training. It just helps me physically and even mentally to get better. And then when I play against girls, I\u2019m not getting tired physically because I practice with Novak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anisimova toppled Sabalenka at Wimbledon and the top-ranked Belarusian said a discussion with Djokovic at SW19 on how to mentally prepare for major matches helped her in Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Wimbledon I spoke to Novak. I just wanted to know how he was preparing himself for those big matches: what was the focus and what was his mindset going into the match,\u201d Sabalenka told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we talked for an hour probably, but with Novak you always can spend more than that talking and asking for advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka surprised some by hiring former doubles No. 1 Max Mirnyi, nicknamed the Beast of Belarus for his swarming net play, to join her coaching staff working with primary coach Anton Dubrov.<\/p>\n
Yet, it turned out to be a shrewd Sabalenka hire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Working with Dubrov and Mirnyi, Sabalenka has sharpened her transition game and net play. She says applying her transition skills and imposing her net play is a primary goal going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to approach the net much more. And I need to spend time working on that and understanding the game on the net in singles,\u201d Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, so many things I can get better at\u2014shots, strokes, like literally everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, October 15, 2025Photo credit: Wuhan Open\/CVG Aryna Sabalenka credits training with Grand Slam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-227344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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