Aryna Sabalenka claimed she had the ‘wrong people’ around her as a young player (Image: Getty)
heartbreakingly revealed that she had the “wrong people” around her earlier in her career. The world No. 1 in Sunday’s Indian Wells final. During her runner-up speech, Sabalenka
The three-time Grand Slam champion later opened up about her experience as a young, up-and-coming player, revealing that it took her a while to find a “healthy” dynamic in her team.
Andreeva has been going from strength to strength over the last few months, and she now finds herself on a 12-match winning streak after winning back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells.
The world No. 6 has credited much of her success to Conchita Martinez, the retired tennis legend who joined her team last year. And Sabalenka also noticed the great dynamic on Andreeva’s team.
“Congrats on having a great team. If I had the same team you have at your age, I’d probably be a better player by now,” the top seed said during her speech.
“I have the best team right now. I mean before. At your age, I was struggling to find the right coach, but you got it so much earlier, that’s why you’re doing so well.”
Mirra Andreeva has been working with Conchita Martinez for almost a year (Image: Getty)
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Sabalenka elaborated on her comments in her post-match press conference, making an upsetting confession about her earlier years on the tour. The world No. 1 claimed that Andreeva’s success was “100 per cent” related to her support camp.
“I’d say that, for example talking about me in that age, I was surrounded by so many wrong people,” Sabalenka explained.
“Finally when I was able to get rid of those people and, how to say, I surrounded myself with the right people, you kind of like you have more confidence and everything is more calm and the atmosphere in the team is very healthy.
“So team is very important. I can see she has her family who is helping her with, I’m sure, with a lot of decisions. She has Conchita, which is really experienced person and very nice person. She doesn’t have the abusive things.”
The 26-year-old also questioned whether Andreeva’s family helped her find the “right” people.
Sabalenka continued: “Maybe it’s not about her, it’s more about maybe her family, because she’s still too young, and maybe it’s kind of like team decision, family decision. So it’s nice to see, and I’m happy for her.
“Yeah, I wish I will have my team, my current team in that age. Probably would be much bigger by now.”
While she’s happy with how how career panned out, the 18-time title winner wishes she also listened to her family.
“Well, I don’t have any regrets, because it’s my experience. Because of that experience, I’m much more mature right now and I know things,” Sabalenka smiled.
“But of course I wish I would be a little bit smarter in that age or I would listen to my family a little bit more.”