Sabalenka on being asked about “parties” last week: “Why would you even say that?”
Aryna Sabalenka has dropped four games in two matches at the US Open and has not won a tournament since March, and it was the second of those facts she was invited to connect to a week of sponsor appearances. The World No. 1 called the question a joke and told the room to move on, then spoke about her season more openly than she has all year.
Aryna Sabalenka, US Open 2026 | © Imago / PsNewz
For the second time in three days, on Wednesday, Aryna Sabalenka was asked whether a week of sponsor appearances had cost her something, and this time she did not let the question finish. The World No. 1 had just beaten Polina Iatcenko 6-1, 6-1 in 55 minutes to reach the third round of the US Open, and she has not won a tournament since March.
Wednesday’s version had used the word parties. The question, in full, was this: “I’m sort of curious, how are you finding your mood now that the tournament has started? Obviously last week it’s lots of parties and fun and stuff like that. Are you…”
“You guys are, like, a joke,” Sabalenka said. “Parties, fun, like, why would you even say that? Why would you even think about that? What kind of question is that? Just because I posted, like, some activities with brands, and you think that I’ve been partying, not training?”
The questioner said he was not suggesting she had been partying, only that there had been many events to attend. “You literally said that,” she replied. “Next question.” When he restated it for the room, she said: “Thanks, yeah. Okay. Move on.”
On Monday, she was already asked whether she had become more serious and combative now the tournament had begun, she was shorter. “Oh, yeah, I wasn’t serious before that. Next question.” She released it herself a moment later, smiling at the following questioner, who had opened with a compliment. “Think before you say stuff.”
Why do you think that the week before wasn’t focused on tennis?
The first version had come after her opening win over Camila Osorio, and it was framed around energy rather than parties. “With the week leading up to the Open, there are so many events and everything, it can be kind of physically draining,” the questioner asked. “On top of being the top seed here and among the favorites, how do you balance the energy?”
Sabalenka’s first response then was a question of her own. “What is the question there?” Told that she had been busy with a lot of events, she asked: “Why do you think that the week before wasn’t focused on tennis?”
She then answered it at length, and the answer is the reason the second version irritated her.
“It’s like my hobby outside of tennis, the whole schedule we plan is all around tennis, so all of those events is not drawing me in any way,” she said. “All the brands that I work with, I choose them very carefully. I have to be really comfortable around those people just so in that case I’m not drawing my energy when I’m surrounded by them. I have fun. It actually gives me so much energy.”
She also spent last week on these courts in the mixed doubles event, alongside Novak Djokovic, as the No. 1 seeds.
“I think I struggled a little bit in the middle of the season,” she also said. “Once again, I’m not going to defend myself or explain why, what happened, but I’m happy with my level. I can definitely say that mentally I’m way stronger than I was in the middle of the season, and physically I also feel stronger.”
She described a change in how she plays, too, from a player whose visible frustration has been a career-long feature. “I feel like I’m kind of moving away from being, trying to be perfect on court,” Sabalenka said. “I know that you cannot be perfect, and I’m just trying to work with what I have right now. I’m happy that I’m able to focus on myself no matter what and being consistent with my focus.”
The record behind the question
Sabalenka won Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami in the first three months of the season and was runner-up at the Australian Open. Since Miami in late March she has not won another title, reaching the Roland-Garros semi-finals and the Wimbledon fourth round before a summer on hard courts that produced no final.
She has won the US Open in each of the last two years, holds a 34-6 record here, and has entered a Grand Slam as World No. 1 for the eighth time in her career. Whatever last week looked like from the outside, she has dropped four games in two matches.
