After a promising start to her tennis career, Victoria Azarenka has experienced many low points. The Belarusian tennis star debuted at a major tournament for the first time at the 2006 Australian Open. In 2012, Azarenka won her first Grand Slam title against Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open that year. After a year, she successfully defended her title. Yesterday, the two-time Grand Slam winner was seen having a conversation with NFL legend Brandon Marshall. 

The discussion was about the way players are being told to approach the game in a typical old-school mindset.

Victoria Azarenka discussing the old-school mindset with NFL Legend Brandon Marshall

Players have been told for years to play a sport in a certain way with the attitude “No pain, no gain.” In an interview yesterday, both Victoria Azarenka and Brandon Marshall talked about how “No pain, no gain” is irrelevant.

“Like in your team, when you had coaches that are older and they have their uh way of teaching is like no pain no gain. I hate that stuff. right? right? I f**king hate that sentence.”

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She further went on to say that “What do you mean ‘no pain, no gain’? It’s not pain, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to make you grow. Challenges and stuff, you know. How you approach those challenges that’s going to make you grow, but not necessarily going through pain.“

In this conversation, Marshall and Azarenka also opened up about their own struggles, expressed frustration with the social media era, and agree that it’s important to keep having tough, emotional conversations.

Azarenka launched her own new podcast

The former world no.1 recently took to Twitter to share news of her new podcast. “I’ve worked really hard these last 8 months to create and drop the second season of my podcast ‘Think About it’ Live now on @Tennischannel and all your favorite podcast networks,” said the 33-year-old.

“Think About It” is a premium talk show that features honest conversations between Azarenka and other celebrities and inspirational guests from all walks of life.

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