The coach answers whether Aryna Sabalenka agrees with Maria Sharapova’s iconic clay quote

Coach Anton Dubrov says the days when Aryna Sabalenka didn’t believe she could do well on clay are long gone and that’s why he wouldn’t see any similarity between the Belarusian and Maria Sharapova’s iconic comment about playing on the slowest tennis court.

After winning her first Grand Slam title as a 17-year-old girl at Wimbledon in 2004, the former Russian tennis star also won her first US Open trophy in 2006. But while the now 37-year-old quickly established herself as a superstar and was a major player, she simply failed to break through at Roland Garros during her first few appearances.

“I feel like a cow on the ice. Especially on clay. The other ten months of the year I don’t play on clay. It’s not that natural for me,” Sharapova said in 2007 after her second-round victory at Roland Garros. about Jill Craybas.

As for Sabalenka, she is a four-time Slam finalist – three-time winner – and has two Australian Open and one US Open trophies in her collection. Although the Belarusian has probably been the best player on hard over the past two years, she has yet to reach the French Open final.

After failing to get past the third round in any of her five main draws in Paris, the 26-year-old reached the semi-finals last year before exiting at the quarter-finals this year. Moreover, Sabalenka has sixteen titles in her collection, but her first titles on clay came only back-to-back victories at the Madrid Open in 2021 and 2023.

Now a Russian medium asked her old coach if they agreed with Sharapova’s comment.

“I think this complex disappeared a long time ago. We discussed it with her. Now on clay she has a clearer understanding of what and how to do to win. It takes more legs, but provides more breaks. You you are in an eternal equilibrium: find where you can use a break, and what you need to take time for, since the situation is difficult, I see that she has started to move better on clay. But she can do it (even) better. And next year we will focus on this. However, winning Wimbledon is even more prestigious,” Dubrov told Championat.

Can Sabalenka get rid of a Sharapova?

The case of the Russian tennis icon is one of the most fascinating. As mentioned above, she became a very strong force on faster courts very early in her career and she did not hide the fact that she did not like clay at all.

But once her career was over, the French Open became her most successful tournament: she won the Parisian Slam twice and finished with one victory in each of the other three Majors. Those two victories at Roland Garros came in 2012 and 2014 and were her last two Slam victories.

So far, Sabalenka has managed to win twice the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid, which probably has the fastest clay on the Tour.

She knows the mentality of the three-time Slam champion and always goes to the French Open with the sole aim of victory. But Iga Swiatek was absolutely dominant there and won the last three tournament editions.

Dubrov reveals the major problem that hampered Sabalenka during this year’s French Open defeat

After the Belarusian and Swiatek met in the finals of Madrid and Rome this year, it was expected that they would also meet in the final of the French Open. The Pole reached the final, but her biggest rival did not after Mirra Andreeva upset the world number 2 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-4.

Now coach Dubrov reveals that the 26-year-old suffered from food poisoning just before the match and was not feeling well at all.

“She got food poisoning the day before in a restaurant. And towards the end of the match with Navarro she felt sick. After the match we arrived at the hotel and she had a chill: she was in bed and had a fever. After that we had only a light training, but before the match with Mirra it was sad: 20-30 minutes of warm-up, and then there was no strength. When your stomach knocks, it knocks you hard,” he explained.

“And literally after a few matches she said she had no strength. She didn’t eat anything, everything hurt. If you watch the match you can see that the person playing is not 100% ready. And on the match on the other side there is Mirra, who did everything right: she fought, did not give us an easy life. Then we draw conclusions about nutrition and that we should be more careful: look for more proven places.”

Although Sabalenka did not win a single clay title this year, her second-place finish in the WTA 1000 tournaments in Madrid and Rome was definitely proof that she can play extremely well even on the slowest surfaces.