BERLIN — World No.3 Aryna Sabalenka will not play in the upcoming Paris Olympics. The reigning Australian Open champion told reporters at the ecotrans Ladies Open that she made the decision to take care of herself and prepare for the summer of hard courts.
“Especially with all the matches I’ve been fighting in the last few months, I feel like I have to take care of my health,” Sabalenka told media on Monday. “It’s too much for the schedule and I’ve made the decision to take care of my health.”
For the first time since Barcelona in 1992, the Olympic tennis match will be played on clay. This will require players to go from grass at Wimbledon to clay at Roland Garros for the Olympics and back to the hard courts of North America. The summer on hard courts includes back-to-back WTA 1000 events in Toronto and Cincinnati, followed by the final Grand Slam of the year at the US Open, where Sabalenka was a finalist last year.
“I prefer to rest a little bit to make sure that physically and health-wise I’m ready for the hard courts,” Sabalenka said, “and I’ll have a good preparation before going into the hard court season. I feel that’s safer and better for my body”.
Sabalenka is the No.2 seed this week in Berlin. She is playing her first tournament since Roland Garros, where she struggled with a stomach illness during her quarterfinal loss to Mirra Andreeva.
“It was the worst experience I’ve ever had on the court,” Sabalenka said. “I played while I was sick, I played with injuries, but when you have a stomach and you have no energy to play and you are in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, that was a really terrible experience. But that’s how it is.
“I think my body was just asking for some rest. I managed to find a few days to relax and recover after the difficult months.”
Sabalenka has already started her preparations on grass with a week of training on the grass courts at Aorangi Park in Wimbledon. The initial adjustment was severe, but Sabalenka is confident she can quickly find her game on grass. He is yet to win a title on grass, but is already a two-time Wimbledon semifinalist.
“We just don’t play enough time on grass, so I don’t have enough time to win a title,” Sabalenka said. “It’s not that I feel bad, I’ve had some good results on grass and I feel really good. I think grass suits my game very well.
“So it’s not about the surface, it’s about the month of tournaments, the number of opportunities I have on a grass court.”
Sabalenka will open her campaign in Berlin against No.14 Daria Kasatkina in the second round. Kasatkina advanced with a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 win over Marta Kostyuk on Monday.