Remember how American star Coco Gauff battled the French crowd that was moving like an unstoppable force behind local talent and French Open sensation Lois Boisson last month? As intimidating as it was playing in front of fans cheering for the giant killer (who took down Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva), Gauff had a strategy to overcome this hurdle. “When you were chanting her name, I was saying to myself, my name!” Simple. Well, seems like World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka may have channelized a similar tactic on Friday while battling British talent Emma Raducanu and her home fans on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
The third round encounter at the All England Club was as expected, intense for the three-time slam queen. In the first set, she had to work harder and eventually took it in a tiebreaker. But in the second, she didn’t take much time to get a fourth-round ticket after besting Raducanu with a score line of 7-6(6), 6-4. And all throughout, she had to face the overwhelming fans of Raducanu, who were constantly screaming her name to boost her confidence. So how did Sabalenka deal with that?
During the press conference, Sabalenka simply revealed, “The atmosphere, sometimes my ears were like really blocked from how loud it was.” But then she found out the biggest strategy to counter it. “But I really enjoyed. And I was like, I was trying to trick my brain and I was pretending that people were cheering for me. And sometimes when they were screaming Emma, it sounded like Aryna or so. I don’t know why. But yeah I think that’s why I wasn’t getting really annoyed by that you know.”
250630 — LONDON, June 30, 2025 — Aryna Sabalenka reacts during the women s singles first round match between Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and Carson Branstine of Canada at Wimbledon tennis Championship in London, Britain, June 30, 2025. SPBRITAIN-LONDON-TENNIS-WIMBLEDON-WOMEN S SINGLES LixYing PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxCHN
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