Aryna Sabalenka’s coach Anton Dubrov has labelled Novak Djokovic’s ability to perform when crowds are against him as the great Serb’s “unique trait.”
The Belarusian believes Sabalenka has developed this quality and declared the three-time major winner is striving to reach Djokovic‘s level in this area.
Sabalenka defeated Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in the final of the US Open earlier this month to claim her third Grand Slam title.
The 26-year-old was up against a crowd firmly behind her American opponent and handled the occasion impressively to triumph at Flushing Meadows for the first time.
Sabalenka has admitted the crowd affected her in her three-set defeat to another American, Coco Gauff, in the title match at the 2023 US Open.
Following her 2024 US Open victory, Sabalenka spoke about dealing with facing Americans at the New York major.
“I would say that this year, I felt so much love from the crowd,” the world No 2 said. “Even though I was facing Americans, they still were supporting, cheering for me a little bit.
“I felt like last year there was kind of like close to zero on my side, and this year I felt a lot of support, even in the finals. I’m just super happy to feel so much love in New York.”
Djokovic is renowned for thriving in hostile crowd environments and has prevailed in numerous high-profile matches when the majority of spectators were supporting his opponent.
In an interview with Championat, Dubrov discussed how Sabalenka has improved at performing in high-pressure situations.
“Your own hormone has already been developed there: when you go out onto the Arthur Ashe against the American,” Dubrov said. “I think Aryna’s advantage is that she has the opportunity to become more active.
“At the early stage of her career, she went into wild stress and began not to play to her strengths and physicality, but to rush, play hyper-aggressively, behave loudly – and thus simply losing control.
“Now she has learned to better direct stress where she can control it, to add pressure on her opponent. This process was long.
“We discussed it a lot in training, but the final say was hers, because she found confirmation through wild and difficult matches – that it works: she does not need to rely on luck, but needs to slow herself down a little physically in these moments, but also emotionally.
”Yes, Novak experiences something similar when he plays, and the crowds will sometimes cheer against him. But he knows how to channel this energy.
“This is his unique trait – to do such this in important moments. This is what Aryna has started to do better at. She’s not at the same level yet, but you can strive for it, no matter how you feel.”
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