"Novak Djokovic’s unique trait” - Aryna Sabalenka’s coach Anton Dubrov on Belarusian ‘striving’ to match Serb's ability to handle hostile crowds

Aryna Sabalenka's coach Anton Dubrov acknowledged Novak Djokovic's ability to turn the crowd's negativity toward him into an advantage during high-pressure moments. Dubrov also mentioned that the Belarusian, though not at the Serb's level, was 'striving' to incorporate this ability into her game.

After coming close on numerous occasions and failing, Sabalenka finally clinched the US Open this year. She defeated home favorite Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in a hard-fought battle to achieve the feat. Interestingly, she was in a similar situation last year when she faced another home favorite Coco Gauff in the summit clash. However, the American youngster came back from a set down to win it all.

In a conversation with the news outlet Championat, Aryna Sabalenka's coach Anton Dubrov said how in the early stages of her career, the Belarusian would go into 'wild stress' in moments of huge magnitude, such as playing the final of the US Open at the Arthur Ashe against a home favorite, and end up losing control of herself.

"Your own hormone has already been developed there: when you go out onto the Arthur Ashe against the American (smiles). 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," Dubrov said.

He explained that she was past that phase and now uses her stress as an advantage. The Belarusian coach admitted that it was a long process and took a lot of hard battles for her to realize that she did not need to rely on luck but calm herself down, physically and mentally.

" 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.”

The 29-year-old added that Sabalenka was able to execute the aforementioned practice at a much higher level, alluding to her performance at the US Open final this year.

”Now she can do more at a higher level: even if she plays a slam final against the American, where any of her points will be cheered loudly, you continue to focus on yourself.”

When questioned by the interviewer about how Novak Djokovic also played against hostile crowds often, Anton Dubrov said that it was the Serb's forte calling it his unique trait. He said that though Aryna Sabalenka was getting better at channeling the crowd's negativity, she was still striving to reach the 24-time Grand Slam champion's level.

”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."

Aryna Sabalenka returns to action post US Open triumph, kicks off China Open campaign in dominant fashion

Aryna Sabalenka (Source: Getty)

Aryna Sabalenka returned to action at the China Open, her first tournament since her US Open triumph. She is the top seed at the WTA event as defending champion Iga Swiatek pulled out. Due to her seeding, she received a bye in the opening round.

She kicked off her campaign against qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew and comfortably ousted the Thai 6-1, 6-4 to reach the third round, where she will face Ashlyn Krueger. This will be the first meeting between the two women.

The winner of the match between Aryna Sabalenka and Ashlyn Krueger will either face 18th seed Madison Keys or 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the fourth round.