Sabalenka played through pain after death of ex

Aryna Sabalenka admitted on the eve of the US Open start that she probably would have been wise to have let her emotions take charge after the death in March of an ex boyfriend.

The world No 2 instead held a public Miami practice session on the day the death was revealed.

Former boyfriend and one-time international ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, died in March in the city in a fall from a high-rise apartment. .

The tragedy was the second in half a decade for the 25-year-old, who lost her father in 2019.

Instead of grieving, Sabalenka plunged even deeper into her tennis, with the reigning Australian Open champion then suffering with a series of injuries which eventually kept her out of Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics.

She also lost early in Miami before playing the Madrid and Rome finals and reaching the Roland Garros quarter-finals.

But things fell apart on the grass, with a shoulder injury keeping her from Wimbledon’ the skipped the Games and returned as a champion with Monday’s Cincinnati title.

“After this year, mentally I will become even stronger,” she said on Friday in New York. But looking back, I definitely think that I should have just stopped (tennis), separate myself from tennis, have this little break and recharge and kind of like start things over again.”

But instead: “I kind of overplayed, and I carried a lot (of pain). At the end, it just hit me with the injury, and also, I was sick, 

“I was injured, I had stomach issue at the French Open. Health-wise I was struggling a lot, and that’s why I think that this (summer) break was much needed.

“It’s not like I’m happy to get injured, but I’m happy that I had this time off and this kind of time to reset my mind, and get ready for the hard court.”