The No. 2 seed is in the groove early in Paris, on and off the court.
But whether paired up or solo, Sabalenka’s been dancing up a storm in Paris. She “warmed up” for the tournament by busting a move in her first practice last week.
Never one to take life too seriously, the world No. 2 says that she’s had to cultivate the right mindset (particularly at the clay-court major, where she was bundled out in the first week in her first five trips to the tournament) to allow her free spirit to shine through on the terre battue.
“I think it’s all comes with experience,” she mused to reporters ahead of the event. “First times when I was coming here, I was so tight, I was so intense because it’s a Grand Slam, and with the years you realize this is just another tournament and you have to have fun. You have to be positive, because it’s enough tension on court. If you’re gonna bring this tension off court, it’s just too much.
“So for me, it’s the better way to kind of like loosen up and to keep it, I don’t know, mentally good, it’s just to have fun, of course.”