Aryna Sabalenka builds her perfect women’s tennis player

Aryna Sabalenka has had a go at building her perfect women’s tennis players and several of the current top players make the list while former world No 1 Ashleigh Barty gets the nod in two categories.

Five-time Grand Slam winner and Sabalenka’s main rival Iga Swiatek, 2023 US Open winner Coco Gauff – who beat the Belarusian in that Flushing Meadows final – current Australian Open champion Madison Keys and 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina also make the cut.

When asked who are the best when it comes to forehand, backhand, serve and return of serve, reigning world No 1 Sabalenka – who had major hiccups on her serve before roping in the a biomechanics coach to fix her problems – started off with: “Serve, I mean, on a good day, I’d say me. Forehand, [ATP No 1 Jannik] Sinner. Can I go like that?”

She was then told it was limited to WTA players and replied: “WTA? Forehand? Backhand? I just so much in love with myself on the good days. I cannot think about any players (laughter). Can you believe me?

“Wait. Serve, Elena when she’s in her good days.

“Forehand… [hitting partner] Andrei [Vasilevski], can you help me right now? Oh, yeah, Madison [Keys].

“What else? Volley?”

As for the backhand and return of serve, the three-time Grand Slam winner said: “Guys, you’re just killing me right now.

“Coco [Gauff] is good. Thank you, guys, for helping me. Anyone help? Just skip this question. I’m so bad.

“Return? Oh, my god. Iga. Iga is good. Serve I said Elena Rybakina. Volley, [Ashleigh] Barty. Slice, Barty.”

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Before the Indian Wells Open got underway, the three-time Grand Slam winner also revealed the funniest players in tennis.

“I think Ons is really funny. I have to say Dimitrov is also pretty fun,” she said. “I don’t know. All of us, like, we’ve got that kind of like funny personalities, so it’s really tough to pick one person.

And that fun aspect, both on the court and away from their place of work, is important if you want to survive at top-level tennis.

She added: “I think it’s all about balance in life, and you have to balance this, like, really tough tennis life with, like, little fun, just so you’re not losing your mind on court, you know.

So I think I’ve been always talking about, like, balancing things out. So I think it’s very important to have some fun outside of court.”