The curious case of world No.2 Aryna Sabalenka’s missing serve continued in alarming style in her second round Australian Open win over Wang Xinyu today, with her case of the yips presenting so badly in the first set that legendary tennis commentator Pam Shriver suggested she should have stayed home to work on her game.
“Based on what I know of the yips, Sabalenka should have gone home to work on it instead of coming to Melbourne,” Shriver said in commentary for ESPN.
https://twitter.com/christophclarey/status/1483985697107484672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
New York Times tennis journalist Christopher Clarey added that Sabalenka’s performance was comparable to Anna Kournikova’s capitulation on serve at the 1999 Australian Open, with the Russian glamour girl serving 31 double faults in a second round win over Japanese player Miho Saeki.
LIVE UPDATES: ‘Deadly’ De Minaur destroys opponent
READ MORE: Kyrgios opens up on COVID-19 struggles
READ MORE: Maxwell smashes record-breaking BBL century at the MCG
Sabalenka didn’t quite match that, serving a total of 19 double faults for a match that she amazingly won, 1-6 6-4 6-2, despite starting the match with six double faults in her opening service game and following it up with another three the next time she stepped up to serve.
To her credit she turned things around even as she experienced one of the most embrrassing meltdowns a professional tennis player could ever go through.
Somehow she continues to get by, using her other weapons to break down her opponents, while she cops her whacks on serve.
But it’s brutal to watch, and has been the theme of Sabalenka’s summer. It’s also unsustainable.
https://twitter.com/christophclarey/status/1483987185137512449?s=20
Sabalenka is fortunate to have a top ranking and the kind draw that affords all of the top players in the world, buying her time to fix her alarming issues before the second week, when she will run into a player who won’t let her off so easily.
In her first round match Sabalenka was pushed all the way by Aussie Storm Sanders, who won the first set as the Belarusian grappled with her failing serve.
Next round she faces Russian 31st seed Marketa Vondrousova, a 22-year-old Czech whose ranking has been as high as world No.14.
Needless to say, a serving performance from Sabalenka like today’s will not likely be good enough to see her into the fourth round.
Which takes us back to Shriver’s comments.
If indeed Sabalenka’s yips are incurable without a spell from the court, has she done herself a disservice by turning up in the first place?
It’s a question that only Sabalenka herself can answer on reflection as time passes, but for now she’s taking a stubborn attitude onto the court that in itself deserves credit.
After digging herself out of a deep hole against her 20-year-old Chinese opponent today, Sabalenka defiantly said this: “I’ve already had a lot of playing without the serve, and I kept telling myself you have enough other shots to win the game even without the serve.”
That comment defies the belief of most in the tennis world that the serve is the most important shot in the sport.
But while she remains in this tournament, what else has she got to hang onto?
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!