Why I'll be watching Sabalenka tomorrow

I love comebacks, character and competitor's ire.

When I was a kid we paid a lot of attention to tennis in my family. I don’t know if it was my family or if it was a hey day of sorts — for women’s tennis, in particular. I remember Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova matches always on the television. I remember teen phenom Tracy Austin winning US Opens in the late 70s and early 80s.

My aunt was a tennis coach. My mom and my aunt played a lot. I felt like I was always at the courts doing cartwheels on the sidelines. I played some too, taught by my aunt. That ended quickly as gymnastics took over my life.

And eventually I stopped watching. And my mom traded in her tennis racket for golf clubs.

It’s been years since I paid any attention at all to tennis. Even with the Williams sisters ascendancy and domination, I just didn’t watch.

But lately I’m intrigued again, by Aryna Sabalenka. She’s tough. She’s extremely tall. And she seems quite joyful out there. I really started to pay attention when her fitness coach, Jason Stacy, wore an XX-XY Athletics cap at a few majors last year and sports journalists and social media trolls decided that he — and she — must be bigots.

(Side note: I find it hilarious that this Reddit thread identifies me as a covid denier. What does that even mean? What a dumb insult.)

At any rate, Sabalenka is set to face American player Madison Keys tomorrow. She’s got the chance of a first Australian Open three-peat on the women’s side, since Martina Hingis in 1999.

To get there, Sabalenka had to beat her “soulmate” Paula Badosa, and an erratic start.

“We both want it badly,” Sabalenka said. “She will hate me for the next hour or so.”

Sabalenka’s biggest weapon, her forehand, was misfiring at the beginning of the match. She found her shot just in time, when she was one point away from being 3-0 down]

Look, we’re Americans. We love comebacks and character and competitor’s ire. Let’s be honest, this is in large part why Trump won the election and why athletes did the Trump dance on the playing field.

I’m no exception. I’m aiming for my own comeback and I’ve been said to possess a competitor’s ire (I think I said it about myself in my first book, Chalked Up, or so my husband tells me. I don’t even remember what I wrote in that book almost 20 years ago.)

Sabalenka’s competitor’s ire gave her the game. Her rock-solid strength of character buoyed her close friend.

Early in the second set of Sabalenka and Badosa’s match, Badosa fell while chasing a forehand but gave Sabalenka a thumbs-up from the floor. The players caught each other’s eyes and laughed. After the match, they embraced, and Sabalenka said she was happy to see her friend playing “at her best level.” Sabalenka drew from her character to uplift her friend — when she was losing and after securing the win.

Sabalenka plays with no country attached to her name, a blank space across the scoreboard. She pushes past that to win. She blocks out the noise, maintains her humanity and pushes herself to reach her full potential. She is relentless but never ruthless. She has undeniable character.

It’s hard to say whether a competitor’s ire is born of training or there from birth? Nature or nurture? Nearly impossible to know for sure. But is it sharpened deep in the throes of athletic training: the hard, boring, and punishing work that includes early mornings, repeated failures, and the resilience to rise and try again.  And then winning. Sometimes. Not always.

Jason Stacy, Sabalenka’s fitness coach, cultivated her strength in demanding the most from her off the court, to make her better on the court. And supporting her as a female athlete at the top of her game, who can still get better than even she might believe.

Great coaches push athletes beyond what they think they are capable of. Without abusing. Without crossing that bright line. Stacy appears to be such a coach. His training videos with Sabalenka on social media bear this out. He pushes, she works. But they have fun. It’s never easy. But the hard work can pay off. An athlete just might win a title. But she might not, so she’d better enjoy the ride.

At a certain point talent is necessary but not sufficient. The greats set themselves apart by the discipline of their training and the focus during competition. They simply miss less than their competitors. They never give up. They pull it out when the pressure is on.

Paradoxically, as we watch female athletes exhibit never-before seen success — Caitlin Clark setting records on the basketball court, Simone Biles winning gold in gymnastics at 27 at the Paris games — we are also watching as males unapologetically enter women’s sports, stealing their trophies at the highest levels.

At the Olympics male boxer Imane Khelif won gold in the women’s welterweight category. And the woke mob demanded Khelif be called a social justice hero, a champion for women’s rights — for his cheating and misogyny.

It’s been up to female athletes to fight back because the International Olympic Committee has been on Khelif’s side and sure isn’t doing it.

When you have trained so hard for what you want, screwing up the courage to stand up and do the right thing is rare. It’s easy to back down, avoid negativity, refuse to anger the mob and the governing bodies. It’s easier to just hope for their favor and, to hope against hope, to win against a man whose biology confers more benefit than steroids.

But some fight back and continue to stay focused. Jason Stacy wore his XX-XY Athletics hat at the Cincinnati Open last August. It’s hard to imagine Sabalenka didn’t know he would, and give her nod of approval, despite the fact that headlines impugned her as a bigot for his sartorial choice.

Both Stacy and Sabalenka faced online bully chatter for his simple act.

He wore a hat. That’s it. It was radical that Stacy and Sabalenka (by inference) supported the idea that women’s sports should be protected. What a crazy time.

Stacy did it again at the U.S. Open in September, and Sabalenka showed her support by liking a social media post shared by XX-XY Athletics which showed her coach wearing the brand's hat.

Those who choose to stand up and do the right thing demonstrate enormous strength of character. They prove that sports serve as a training ground for developing young people into outstanding individuals who are equipped to endure the most difficult moments on the road to triumph. 

That spirit of overcoming repeated failures and unflinching support for women athletes is in the same tradition of Tennis GOAT Martina Navratilova, a staunch defender — and leftie, it should be noted — of women’s sex-based rights.

This match tomorrow is about the relentless grind, the unshakable character and the defining moments that push women’s sports forward. And that’s why I expect so many women on U.S. soil will set their alarm clocks and tune in. Killer forehands, honest laughs and coaches who won’t back down all fuel a movement that commands my full attention.

Sabalenka plays Keys at 3:30 AM Eastern Time/1:30 AM Mountain Time (MT) on Saturday, January 25