‘I’m two different people’: scary Sabalenka dominates Open before softer side cuddles up to Daphne

Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka fights tooth, nail and decibels to win tennis matches. She’s intimidating and tough. Off the court, she’s the opposite.

Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka poses with the 2024 Australian Open winner's trophy at Carlton Gardens in Melbourne on Sunday, following her victory over China's Qinwen Zheng.Picture: William West/AFP

Aryna Sabalenka is a ruthless, intimidating, power-packed, screaming, pouting, shouting, highly strung athlete.

Away from tennis, she’s a big-hearted, fun-loving, joyful woman. A total sweetheart. The Australian Open champion does her big kookaburra laugh and admits the contrasts are extreme.

“Well, it’s actually good that I’m two different people on and off the court,” the Belarusian said ­ before giving the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup a kiss and a cuddle at Melbourne’s Carlton Gardens on Sunday. “Because if I would be the same person that I am on the court, off the court, I think I wouldn’t have my team around me. I think I would be alone. It takes me so much time to kind of become who I am right now on the court and to understand myself better. It’s been a long journey. There’s still a way to go.”

Sabalenka won her second straight Open with a resounding 6-3 6-2 victory over China’s ­Qinwen Zheng on Saturday. It wasn’t even a contest. She was so good it was scary, totally and ­utterly dominating from the opening point to the last before joking with her entourage that she was going to do an Ash Barty and call it quits.

Sabalenka is 25 … Barty’s age when the ex-Wimbledon champion and world No.1 shocked everyone except her nearest and dearest by hanging up her racquet in 2022.

“I just said, like, ‘I’m going to ­retire after today’,” Sabalenka grinned. “But no, too early, I think. I can still do something else.”

Sabalenka didn’t drop a set all tournament. Her only real ­moment of hardship, well, awkwardness, was when Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko refused to shake hands after their match in round three. Sabalenka had just beaten Tsurenko 6-0 6-0. Belarus’s involvement in the war against Ukraine forces her to play under a neutral flag and she has said she feels “hated because of my country” but, tennis-wise, it was plain sailing at Melbourne Park.

The ruthless, intimidating, power-packed, screaming, pouting, shouting, highly-strung triumph meant she had realised the dream she shared with her late ­father, Sergey, who always ­believed she would hold two major titles at the age of 25. Sergey died suddenly four years ago and Sabalenka took a long while to come to terms with the loss. Now she’s a two-time major champion … at the age of 25.

Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka on her way to a ruthless, intimidating, power-packed, screaming, pouting, shouting, highly-strung triumph in the Australian Open final. Picture: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP

She blew a kiss to the sky after beating Zheng but denied her wins were exclusively for Sergey.

“Before last year’s slam, it was like that,” she said. “But since then, of course he’s my biggest motivation and he’s been everything for me, but right now I have my mum, my sister, who is here with me – I feel like I have to think about them. I just feel that he’s always with me. I’m very thankful for everything he did for me. I think if not for him I wouldn’t be here but right now I’m playing for my mum and my sister and my grandmothers.”

Unusually for Sabalenka, she spoke about her family during her victory speech. With one final kookaburra laugh, she revealed her mother, Yulia, was in the throes of major celebrations. Or perhaps the real meaning was lost in translation. Perhaps Mum’s really angry.

“We are in touch on the phone but the phone is different to real life,” Sabalenka said. “I feel so far from them. I really miss them so much. I actually never really speak about them in speeches but I just wanted to make sure they know how much they mean to me. And that they’re my biggest motivation and I’m doing everything for them. I spoke to my mum and there is already a fight about where the trophy is going. She’s really pissed right now, by the way!”