Aryna Sabalenka Reveals Real Reason Behind China Open Withdrawal Ahead of Wuhan Campaign

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka will be chasing her fifth title of the season at the Wuhan Open.

Aryna Sabalenka Reveals Real Reason Behind China Open Withdrawal Ahead of Wuhan Campaign

Aryna Sabalenka (Image via X/Roland Garros)

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Aryna Sabalenka is all set to make her return to the court. She is in Wuhan for the final WTA 1000 of the season.

Sabalenka is a record three-time champion in Wuhan, winning the title in 2018 and defending it the following year. The tournament was not held from 2020 to 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and when the tournament was once again added to the WTA calendar in 2024, Sabalenka clinched the trophy by going past local star Qinwen Zheng, who this year won’t be playing because of her elbow injury.

Wuhan Open is Sabalenka’s first tournament since her successful campaign in New York. The Belarusian beat home favorite Amanda Anisimova in straight sets to defend her title as well as become a four-time Grand Slam singles champion.

Sabalenka cited an injury and withdrew from the penultimate WTA 1000 of the season, the China Open. In the pre-tournament press conference in Wuhan, Sabalenka explained the reason behind taking some time off from tennis.

I feel so good. I just didn’t want to rush my body into another tournament too soon [after the US Open]. I took some extra time to recover and make sure I’m ready. Now I can assure you that I will do my best. Hopefully, I can claim this beautiful trophy again. I’m really happy with my season. I’ve learned a lot of tough lessons, especially from the Grand Slam losses earlier this year.

The 27-year-old failed to complete a three-peat at the Australian Open, losing the final to Madison Keys. Later, she reached her career’s first French Open final, but there, the match ended in Coco Gauff‘s favor. She then suffered a three-set defeat to Anisimova in the Wimbledon semifinal.

But those matches only made me stronger as a player and as a person. Of course, I’d love to change a couple of finals, but looking back, those experiences were needed to make me better.

Aryna Sabalenka added

The first seed will be locking horns with the winner of the first-round match between Anna Kalinskaya and Rebecca Sramkova. She is projected to face Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals.

Aryna Sabalenka shares how she deals with hate comments

Aryna Sabalenka has vowed “never, never, ever really go deep into that dark, dark space of social media“, after seeing hate messages from the fans. Sabalenka addressed the abusive messages that players are bombarded with by fans on a regular basis after her rival, Iga Swiatek, took to her Instagram story to share the derogatory messages she received following her fourth-round defeat to Emma Navarro at the China Open.

Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka (Image via X/WTA)

Sometimes I’m shocked. Sometimes there’s like, mothers messaging such terrible things. Sometimes it just you can see the person is doing nothing and commenting on people who is trying to do something in life, who is trying to motivate, inspire next generation.

Aryna Sabalenka said in the pre-tournament press conference

To deal with the hate messages, Sabalenka takes them as a joke. But despite the negative sides, Sabalenka won’t change her approach to social media as she loves to connect with people and feels her life is an open book because she shares almost everything about herself with the fans.

In Wuhan, Sabalenka has a perfect 17-0 win-loss record. She is bidding to win her fifth title of the season after her victories in Brisbane, Miami, Madrid, and New York.

Apart from them and the Australian Open and French Open finals, Sabalenka also reached the championship clashes of Indian Wells and the Stuttgart Open, losing them to Mirra Andreeva and Jelena Ostapenko. Sabalenka will also be chasing her 10th WTA 1000 title of her career in Wuhan.

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