Aryna Sabalenka advances to the third round at Indian Wells after easily defeating Himeno Sakatsume.
And, having just announced her engagement earlier this week, she was still full of excitement when speaking to the media.
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The Belarusian spoke at the press conference about a variety of topics from tennis to his personal life. But she didn’t expect the conversation to turn to Emma Raducanu.
Sabalenka was asked about her thoughts on Raducanu’s coaching situation and took the opportunity to share an expanded opinion on the matter.
Sabalenka shares her thoughts on Raducanu’s journey to coaching
Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images
Sabalenka didn’t hesitate when asked if she could move forward without a coach, as Raducanu planned.
“Yeah, I’m going to fire them all right now,” she joked (Laughter).
“No, I think it’s going to be tough for me personally. I think even though I’m mentally tough and strong, it’s important for me to feel supported and see my team in the box and have my guys around me.
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“So for me, I mean, right now I don’t see myself without a coach. Even though I’m smart and I understand tennis, I kind of want to know everything, but at the same time…
“I don’t like coming into training and doing the whole thing by myself. It takes too much energy. “I just need the coach to structure the training and let me do something so that the only thing I worry about is my tennis. Not what exercise should be done today or what should be done.
“For me, it’s going to be difficult, but I feel like she’s been trying to find the right fit for her. I think maybe it’s good to take a break because rushing to take anyone on can cause more problems.”
Emma Raducanu gets off to a good start at Indian Wells
Marc Page will help Raducanu this week but she has yet to fill the vacancy with a permanent appointment.
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The 22-year-old is comfortable without anyone since parting ways with Francisco Roig and appears to be in no rush to hire new staff.
She seems confident in her approach and knows how she wants to play and doesn’t really need outside guidance at the moment.
This is not a typical path, and it may be criticized by some aspects of the game.
But given Raducanu’s sharp performance against Anastasia Zakharova – winning in straight sets and holding the lead throughout – it’s hard to argue with her results so far.
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