Aryna Sabalenka’s U.S. Open titles are built on an empire state of mind. Can she find it again?

Aryna Sabalenka first traveled to New York City as a teenager. On her first morning in the Big Apple, weary and jet-lagged, she rose just after dawn. Her body clock was telling her it was time.

Unable to get back to sleep, she threw on some clothes and headed out the door of her hotel room just after 6 a.m., hoping to take a solitary walk in what she assumed would be a slumbering Central Park.

“I thought, ‘OK, it’s going to be empty, it’s going to be beautiful,’” Sabalenka recalled during a recent interview.

“I went in there, and everyone is running. It’s like thousands of people. I’m like … ‘What the hell? Does this city sleep at all?’ That was crazy.”

At the time, Sabalenka figured she and New York weren’t going to get along that well. She’d grown up in Minsk, the capital of Belarus and a far quieter city in a country of just 9 million people — about as many people as there are in the city of New York itself.

A decade later, though, Sabalenka, the world No. 1 and two-time defending U.S. Open champion, has become something of a New York tennis zen master, drawing energy from the noise, commotion and hassles of a city and a tournament that can sap the will of her opponents.

It helps that she is arguably the top hard-court player in women’s tennis, but winning in the city takes much more than just an affinity for a surface.

“She can use it pretty well, this energy, and not just let it drain her,” Sabalenka’s longtime coach, Anton Dubrov, said in an interview ahead of the tournament. “She can use this atmosphere; people are screaming around, even the traffic. It can drain you, but at the same time you can use it. It’s kind of like a stress motivation thing.”

The traffic? The clogged journey from midtown Manhattan out to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens that can last more than an hour, even on good days? Everyone hates that.

Except Sabalenka. Like Roger Federer, who treated it as a rare quiet moment during the raucous days of his career, she’s even learned to love it.

“I just put the headphones on, and I enjoy it,” Sabalenka said. “I just like to be in the car. I look around.”

Maybe that’s why Sabalenka has been in the final three consecutive years, and was a few games away from winning her first U.S. Open title a year earlier than she did. She’s made the final four every year since 2021.

Each of the four Grand Slams brings its own challenges. For most players, the Australian Open involves a 20-plus-hour journey, and then they have to adjust to the time zone. At the French Open, there is the silky, slippery clay of Roland Garros. At Wimbledon, there is the grass, the grandeur and the history of the sport’s most important tournament.

New York and the U.S. Open deliver chaos and headaches at nearly every turn. The very mention of it can make 2022 champion Iga Świątek’s eyes bulge. Novak Djokovic, who has won it four times, still secludes himself at a friend’s estate in Alpine, N.J., to escape the commotion and find the peace he needs to thrive.

Paula Badosa, Sabalenka’s closest friend in tennis, was born in New York. It’s her favorite city — except when it comes to doing her job there. The noise and the wind top her list of complaints.

Even players who love the U.S. Open recognize that it’s not exactly ideal conditions for tennis Nirvana.

“Everyone’s half-drunk on Honey Deuces, ” a line referring to the signature cocktail, is often the first thing out of Frances Tiafoe’s mouth when the subject of his favorite Grand Slam arises.

Nearly all the U.S. Open lovers and haters view it as a kind of survival test, an event that challenges their senses and ability to find quiet and sleep. To hear Sabalenka talk about her recipe for success means leaning into the chaos with her as she describes how she makes it work at a clip, with a few hacks, tricks and favorite haunts along the way.

She books a room on the highest possible floor of her hotel. After a decade of sampling, she has figured out where she can eat well and also eat good.

“I go to Polo Bar; I have my steak there with really good sides,” she said. “I go to Greek restaurants. There’s plenty of good healthy restaurants, and then after the tournament I go crazy.”

The way the past few months have gone, Sabalenka is going to need every bit of her New York mojo to win a third consecutive U.S. Open title, because she has lost every possible way since the clay-court season.

She lost from match point at the Madrid Open. She was a game away from victory in the French Open quarterfinals before losing 10 consecutive games to Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Naomi Osaka overwhelmed her at Wimbledon. At the Cincinnati Open, diminutive rising Czech talent Sará Bejlek wore her down with her defense and foot speed, but Sabalenka also lost leads of 5-1 in the first-set tiebreak and 4-1 in the second set.

Can New York be different again? Maybe.

Sabalenka believes she’s even figured out how to mitigate one of her biggest challenges: facing an American on home soil. Three years ago, she crumbled under the cacophony of nearly 24,000 fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium, as they spurred Coco Gauff to a comeback victory.

That was a different Sabalenka, a player who naturally felt like a serious outsider, who wasn’t yet comfortable letting down her guard in the sport’s biggest stadium, in a city that wasn’t hers. She needed to get to know them. They needed to get to know her.

Becoming the world No. 1 certainly helped. American crowds love stars capable of making sports history in their presence. It just took her a little while to figure out how to show them who she was beyond what she did with a racket. All those wins and post-match, on-court interviews gave her plenty of opportunity for that.

“I think they really fall for the personality,” Sabalenka said. “If they like the personality, if they get to know a person better, they get a chance to fall in love. I don’t think they fall only for stars.”

In 2024, after get...

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →