AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2026

Aryna Sabalenka

Press Conference

A. SABALENKA/B. Zhuoxuan

6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Aryna, congratulations. Into the third round. Just give us an overview on your match today and your performance, please.

ARYNA SABALENKA: Super happy with the win, of course. Really enjoyed the atmosphere. It was really beautiful. It was a bit tricky. She played really great tennis.

I'm happy that I was able to close that first set and kind of, like, was able to step in and increase the level in the second set.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I have a question about tennis in general. On-court, it can often be very intense. Players are compared to gladiators. Off-court, there is this expectation of kind of certain kinds of manners and politeness. I wonder how you think those two things fit together.

ARYNA SABALENKA: I didn't really get the second part, like what is the off-court expectations? Being like polite and what?

Q. Everyone be very polite and, like, respectful.

ARYNA SABALENKA: Okay, I got it.

Well, yeah, we are quite aggressive on court, it's very intense. We are all chasing our goals, and we are opponents, we are competing. We are trying, yeah, basically try and reach our goals.

Off the court, we are all actually nice to each other, and like you said, very polite, very respectful, having fun. Some players are better with one group; some players better with another. It's like that, I think, in society overall.

I'm really happy that nowadays players are better in balancing these two extremes, I'd say. We are capable of really defining these two different lives.

Yeah, happy to see it's more healthy environment in the locker room nowadays.

Q. You're someone who is really into fashion. With that in mind, I was curious what you thought of Naomi Osaka's outfit last night.

ARYNA SABALENKA: You know, that's really beautiful about fashion that you can express yourself in any way. It's pretty free world. There is no judgment. There is just, like, one people see fashion in one way; other people see fashion in other way. You know, that's why it's so beautiful that you can feel free and go and show yourself, show your personality.

I think yesterday that was a perfect fit of her personality, her culture, a lot of things. That was pretty cool.

Q. If you could make some fantasy fashion entrance, have you thought about what that would look like?

ARYNA SABALENKA: For me, I wish Nike would let me do this kind of stuff, but not for this year. We are working on it, but I don't know. I think I would be more like classy entrance. Maybe, I don't know, maybe long coat or -- I don't know.

I mean, I was fantasizing, trying to work it out, but not good enough yet. But I'll come up with something cool next year, for sure.

Q. Some players are experimenting with jewelry. I wonder, do you design it yourself, do you work on it digitally, is it just a hand sketch where you come with these patterns? Your pendant, is it an Evil Eye thing or just a sapphire?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Just a sapphire. It just actually looks like the eye, protection eye. I like to think that it's protecting me in any way.

The whole idea was different. Was sapphire, like I said before, a blue sky, waves, ocean. I think it's like a perfect fit for my outfit.

But we just sit together with Material Good, with their team, we speak, I tell them what I like, what I want to see. I like how creative they are, and they bring a lot of cool ideas. We move from there.

Q. You have now won 45 of your last 50 sets here. The only other women to have bettered that in the Open Era are Graf, Hingis, Seles, and Serena. How does it feel to be amongst that group?

ARYNA SABALENKA: That sounds crazy and surreal, to be honest. Just never thought that people will kind of like compare me to these names, even though I'm really far away from their achievements. Of course it sounds incredible and sounds like really -- it's motivate me to keep doing my thing. It just means for me that I'm on the right way.

Q. Obviously we don't know who you play next, but it might be Emma Raducanu. You have had a couple really good battles with her last year. I just wonder what makes her a tricky opponent, and would you relish another chance to play her?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Yeah, I would like to play. We always, like you say, have great battles. She's a great player. Happy to see her back on her top level and moving well.

You can see that she's a fighter, always fighting. It's never easy. You always have to be focused and ready to fight whenever, you know, and that's why I enjoy, because it's always a great battle against her.

Q. I don't know if you saw Oliynykova, the Ukrainian player, was speaking, and she mentioned you and a couple of the Russian players and said that you have supported your governments before, and she called for a ban on Russian and Belarusian players. I wanted to give you a chance to reply to that if you wanted to.

ARYNA SABALENKA: I have spoken a lot about that before, obviously. I want peace, and if I could change anything, I would definitely do that.

Other than that, I have nothing else to say.

Q. Looking ahead to the next round again, you've got a good record against both players, whoever you might play. Don't think you have lost to either of them. How does that make you feel? A lot of confidence? Something you're conscious about going into a match when you've got a considerably good head-to-head?

ARYNA SABALENKA: As I always say, I never focus on the past. Doesn't matter what the head-to-head looks like. It's always a new match, always a new battle. Every player is getting better, improving.

And also, you know, when you go against the top-ranking player, you have nothing to lose so you play more free so they always bring the best battle, which I love. It's a great challenge for me.

I look at each match as a new match, new opportunity. I have also been working really hard. For me, doesn't matter what was in the past. For me, it's the new match. Obviously I'm going to watch their match and see if there is any changes, and we will move from there (smiling).

Q. Did you see what Naomi wore on court last night? And if so...

ARYNA SABALENKA: I just spoke about that.

Q. Sorry. Would you ever do something like that or try something like that?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Well, as I said just previously, like, fashion is a beautiful world where you can express yourself fully and there is no judgment. This is how she see it, and this is perfectly for her, for her culture, just for her personality.

I would definitely do some cool entrance like red-carpet entrance, but I think I would style myself a bit differently.

Q. I'm not sure if you are aware, I'm a former colleague of Duncan McKenzie McHarg, the interviewer who sadly passed away last month. Are you aware of this? I know you had some really fun interviews with him previously. Yeah, just wanted to know if you had any memories that you could share.

ARYNA SABALENKA: Yeah, that's really heartbroking. Obviously I was shocked. I didn't want to believe that. I was really, until the very last moment, I thought, I hope it's a mistake or something.

But it's heartbroking, and we had a lot of great fun interviews. I would never see it coming. I thought he was very fun, always smiling, always, I don't know, always nice.

This is really sad for Tennis Australia. Yeah, I just, I don't know what you can say in these moments. I hope his family stays strong and they will be okay.

Q. There were moments during the match when Bai put you under some pressure. My question is what impressed you most about her performance today?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Yeah, I think it was really great to see that. Doesn't matter what the score was, she was able to step in and to, you know, to show really great tennis.

She didn't start well, but then she had the strength to step in and to change couple of things and, yeah, to put me under pressure. That was really impressive.

Whole match, it seemed like she wouldn't really care about the score. She would just try to find something that gonna help her to win the match. That was really cool to see.

Q. With respect that you don't want to comment anymore politically, but do you think it's unfair, the comments from yesterday from Oliynykova, calling you out personally? Would you like to see politics stay away from tennis?

ARYNA SABALENKA: Listen, I'm here for tennis. It's a tennis event. I have said enough in the past and just don't want to talk politics here. Thank you.