Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka was crowned as the US Open 2024 champion on Saturday. With this, Sabalenka has managed to grab both hard-court Grand Slam titles of the year. After her 3rd Grand Slam victory, a past video of her sharing her struggles with mental health, is doing the rounds on social media.
Sabalenka was going through a rough patch mentally, before she lifted her first-ever Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2023. But she dealt with them with great strength and decided to battle them herself and hence, stopped working with her psychologist.
During a press conference at the Australian Open, she revealed that it was important for her to do her own thinking rather than rely on another person’s inputs all the time.
“To be honest, I stopped working with a psychologist. I realized that nobody than me will help you know and yeah in the pre-season, I spoke to my psychologist saying like listen I felt like I have to deal with that myself because every time I’m hoping that someone will fix my problem,” said Sabalenka in the press conference.
She further added, “It’s not fixing my problem so I just have to take this responsibility and I just have to, I have to deal with that and yeah, I am not working with psychologist anymore. I’m like psychologist.”
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In 2023, Sabalenka made it to the semifinals of the French Open and Wimbledon and played the final of the US Open, which she lost. It gave her the momentum she needed to deal with a topsy-turvy 2024 season.
Sabalenka managed to defend her Australian Open title. But the year wasn’t really a bed of roses for her. Things were really dark as in March 2024, she was much talked about when her ex-boyfriend Konstantin Koltsov, who was an international ice hockey player, died in what was considered a ‘suicide’ by the police.
The noise around the death and theories surrounding her role in it, caused some serious damage to Sabalenka’s mental health and despite needing rest, she forced herself to play Miami Open and lost in the third round.
Addressing why she continued to play, Sabalenka had told The Guardian:
“Once, I lost my father and tennis helped me to go through that tough loss. So at that moment [Koltsov’s death] I thought I had to just keep going, keep playing, keep doing my thing to separate my personal life from my career life.”
“It was really emotional and really stressful, and kind of damaged my mental health at that point,” she was to say later.
Sabalenka then had to miss out on Wimbledon after sustaining a shoulder injury. This was followed by her decision to not participate in the Paris Olympics as well and instead, prepare for the US Open, which indeed paid off.
Hence, Sabalenka’s victory on Saturday is a testament to her, not just physical but, strong mental prowess. She dealt with her hardships on more than one occasion and only carved her way to success. With the win, she also bagged $3.6 million in prize money, the highest of her career so far in any Grand Slam.
