Aryna Sabalenka insisted that she is not happy to see Iga Swiatek out of action as the Belarusian claims she actually likes it when the Pole is around and they clash against each other in the latter stages of tournaments.
After reaching the Beijing quarterfinal at the start of her Asian swing, the 26-year-old is back in action at this week’s WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan, where she started with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Katerina Siniakova.
On the other side, the Polish world No. 1 didn’t play in Beijing due to personal reasons and she is also not competing in Wuhan. Last week, Swiatek dismissed her long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and said she needed some time to address the circumstances before returning to action.
While the Pole struggled during the North American hard-court swing, Sabalenka won the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati and also the US Open to shrink the lead at the top.
Currently, Swiatek has 9,785 ranking points while the Belarusian has 8,716 in her pocket. Since Wuhan is a WTA 1000 tournament, the 26-year-old has a great chance to further reduce the Pole’s lead by making a very deep run at the tournament.
“I mean, I love having this competition and I love seeing her in the draw. Yeah, I love to, like, get to the finals and face her in the finals….
