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Sabalenka revealed that she had moved on from the defeat in Melbourne and opined that Keys played out of her skin to clinch her maiden Grand Slam title.
Aryna Sabalenka. (X)
Belarussian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, who went down fighting to American Madison Keys in the final of the Australian Open 2025 and thereby missing a three-peat of the year’s first major, revealed that she had moved on from the defeat in Melbourne.
Sabalenka, who returns to competitive action for the first time since the AO final at the Doha Open, a WTA 1000 event, opined that Keys played out of her skin to clinch her maiden Grand Slam title.
“This one was the toughest one. I think for a week I was still thinking about that match,” Sabalenka said.
“Honestly, looking back and thinking about those two lost games (in the final set), I didn’t do anything wrong, she just played out of her mind, and it was her day, there’s nothing to regret. I think right now I’m fully recovered after that tough match,” the Belarussian added.
The 27-year-old Sabalenka will compete at the Dubai Open after the tournament in Doha, and is also slated to appear at the Sunshine Double at Indiana Wells and Miami next month.
“The schedule is actually pretty tough, especially if you make it to the last stage of the Australian Open, then you don’t have much time to recover and prepare yourself for these big events,” she explained.
“I believe I’ll just take these two tournaments as a preparation for the Sunshine one, and I’ll try to build my tennis, and probably take my tennis to the next level in these two events,” Sabalenka said.
The three-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka also lauded the efforts of Belinda Bencic, who clinched the Abu Dhabi Open less than ten months after becoming a mother.
“That’s impressive, honestly. She just came back, I think Australian Open she had a great run, to the fourth round, and now she’s holding the trophy. It’s amazing, I’m super happy for her, she definitely deserved that,” Sabalenka said.
“As she said, she worked really hard for that, and it’s good to see. It gives us hope that probably, whenever we’re all going to go for babies, we have a chance to come back if we want to,” she jested.
