Belarusian tennis player and the current World no.2, Aryna Sabalenka, has had an unusually bad start to 2022. In preparation for the Australian Open, the Belarusian played two tournaments so far. However, in both the tournaments, she surprisingly lost in the first round. 

As a result, her preparation for the Australian Open 2022 has taken a major hit. She played in Adelaide International 1 and Adelaide International 2, and her performances were off her-usual standards. Fans on social media are pretty worried after seeing her performance in both the matches, as the reactions are pouring in. 

Nightmare for Aryna Sabalenka in Adelaide

In Adelaide International 2, Aryna Sabalenka faced 93 ranked Rebecca Peterson from Sweden in the round of 32, where she lost to the Swedish player by 7-5, 1-6, 5-7. It’s not just the defeat; it’s the manner in which she lost the match that caught everyone’s eye. 

The 23-year-old Belarusian made 21 double faults in her match against Peterson. At one point, she got really tearful and started doing underarm serve, as her first serves were really not hitting the mark. Sometimes, those first serves were going out of the tennis court. 

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After the match, Peterson said, “That was definitely the weirdest match I’ve ever played… It was tough staying focused. I know she was struggling a lot.”

Even in the previous tournament, she played against Kaja Juvan from Slovenia, where she lost the match by 7-6, 6-1. In that match, too, she made 18 double faults, that’s a total of 39 double faults in two matches combined.

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What’s next for Sabalenka?

The young and talented Belarusian had a good 2021 where she reached the Wimbledon semi-final, where she lost to Karolina Pliskova. Even though she lost the match, she showed heart in the match also throughout the whole tournament.

However, since the US Open, her performance graph is going downwards and the way she started 2022 will surely worry her. She will be the no.2 seed in the Australian Open and it will be interesting to see who she will face in the first round.  

She doesn’t have a lot of time either to get proper match practice before the Grand Slam, which is scheduled to begin from the 17th of January. Fans will be hoping that she rectifies all of her mistakes and plays her heart out in the tournament.  

How far do you think Sabalenka will go in the Australian Open? Let us know in the comments.

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