As next month’s WTA Finals approach, the new world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, has been in Dubai, laying the groundwork for what she hopes will be a final flourish to a career-changing season.
“We just want to manage her energy and make sure she’s ready,” says Gavin MacMillan, Sabalenka’s biomechanical guru, who has been credited with solving her service yips. “She’s played almost the most matches of anyone, and there’s a lot of mental and physical fatigue, so we’re trying to refresh for one more battle.”
If Sabalenka ever decides to write an autobiography, 2024 will merit a long and emotional chapter.
On the upside, the Belarusian’s trophy cabinet – previously home to one major title – has expanded to accommodate two more this season, after she went unbeaten through the hard-court slams in Melbourne and New York.
Turning to the negatives, the biggest sporting frustration lay in Sabalenka’s withdrawal from Wimbledon with a rare injury: a tear to the teres major muscle, which pulls the shoulder back in its socket. Yet even that disappointment paled alongside the tragedy of her former boyfriend’s death in March. “While we were no longer together,” she wrote on social media, “my heart is broken.”
But if there is one thing MacMillan has observed, it is that Sabalenka keeps striving, no matter what else is going on in her life. A man who works across a multitude of sports, he considers her work ethic to be unmatched.
“Even before I met Aryna, I disagreed with how pundits were blaming her double-fault issues on mental weakness,” he tells Telegraph Sport. “I thought it was the opposite. It’s an embarrassing thing to have to go through, and yet she was still going out there and battling.
“That was the first thing I told her, when we started working together two years ago. ‘You’re simply doing it wrong.’ Obviously the proof was there, because the minute she had any information, she turned it around.
“I flew in on a Friday [before the Cincinnati Open in 2022], the day after she had played Coco Gauff and double-faulted around 20 times [in Toronto]. We started Saturday morning. When she played again Thursday night, she double-faulted four or five times.”
A native of Toronto who played college tennis, MacMillan started out as a fitness trainer before taking a closer interest in biomechanics. He has worked with combat-sport champions such as UFC’s Georges St-Pierre and middleweight boxer Miguel Cotto, as well as athletes from baseball, basketball and gridiron. Yet he rates tennis as the most demanding discipline of all.
“It’s unique in that it requires so many levels of technical skill,” MacMillan says. “You have to master at least seven biomechanics. You’ve got to have elite speed and endurance, plus the brain of a world-class chess player, because the conditions – and your opponent – are constantly changing.
“Ultimately, though, the sport revolves around your ability to hit shots. Aryna had holes in her game that weren’t allowing her to do that. We rebuilt the serve, and we have developed the forehand as well so that she can go hard cross-court with margin.
“Then, right before the French Open, Anton [Dubrov, Sabalenka’s primary coach] did a really good job of working on her drop shot. A lot of her opponents start backing up on the court, and now she can change the points around and slice and everything else, there’s less predictability to what she’s doing. She’s really worked on her volleys and her overheads as well.
“All of these things add a different element. Because it’s one thing to hit big shots, it’s another thing to be able to play tennis. That requires you to be able to change the pace and the spin, so that you can counter what your opponent’s doing.”
Sabalenka’s stability breeds success
For the second time in as many seasons, Sabalenka goes into the WTA Finals – which are being staged in the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh – with a narrow lead over her chief rival Iga Swiatek in the rankings table.
At last year’s event – which was staged in farcical weather and terrible court conditions at a temporary stadium in Cancun, Mexico – Swiatek won their semi-final meeting and thus nipped in for the year-end No 1 position by just 245 points.
These two must be the favourites to meet in this year’s final on Nov 9. There are other convincing candidates, though. Gauff is also finishing the season strongly after parting company with Brad Gilbert – the hard-bitten coach who helped her win last year’s US Open – and hiring young American Matt Daly as his replacement.
In fact, coaching shifts have been a theme at the top of the women’s game of late. French Open champion Swiatek announced the departure of Tomasz Wiktorowski at the start of this month, hiring Naomi Osaka’s former coach Wim Fissette instead.
Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina has been absent from the tour since the US Open, which she entered without a coach after dispensing with the services of Stefano Vukov – pretty much the only man she had worked with as an elite player.
And the consistent Jessica Pegula replaced David Witt early in the year, going on to work with Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein.
“It was originally Jason that suggested they find someone to work on her serve,” says MacMillan, with reference to Sabalenka’s Australian fitness coach Jason Stacy, a former hockey international. “Anton was the first person I spoke to. You just don’t know how these things will gel, and it was important for me that Anton knew when I got there that I wasn’t after his job. But we got on from the start. He’s one of the best young coaches around, and always working to get better.
“Now we just have to try to get the most out of these next 10 days, get Aryna’s batteries refreshed a little bit, and see what she can do.”
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