The Japan Times - Refreshed Sabalenka 'ready to go' after post-US Open break

The Belarusian will this week make her first appearance since lifting a fourth Grand Slam title in New York a month ago.

She plays at the Wuhan Open, where she has a perfect 17-0 record. She is bidding for a fourth consecutive title there.

Sabalenka, 27, is also engaged in a battle with Iga Swiatek for the year-end top spot.

A successful title defence in Wuhan would help Sabalenka maintain her lead over her Polish rival but it will not be easy, with Anna Kalinskaya or Rebecca Sramkova looming as possible first opponents for the top seed.

"I feel good," said Sabalenka, who withdrew from the China Open in Beijing and took a full month off after her US Open exploits.

"I just didn't want to rush my body into the tournament, so I think we made the right decision to take extra time for recovery and for the preparation, and now physically, I feel ready to go."

Sabalenka suffered some brutal losses at the majors this year, falling to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final, to Coco Gauff in the Roland Garros final and to Amanda Anisimova in the Wimbledon semi-finals – before she turned things around at the US Open.

"I would rate my season as a pretty successful season," she said. "The goal is to stay the same, to improve myself every day, to keep the position of world number one, to see how far I can get in this sport and how much I can win."

- Swiatek aims to bounce back -

As Sabalenka looks to extend her undefeated run in Wuhan, Swiatek will be making her tournament debut.

She is coming off a disappointing round of 16 loss to Emma Navarro in Beijing.

The Pole picked up a sixth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon during the summer to end a 13-month title drought and has added two more trophies to her cabinet since then, in Cincinnati and Seoul.

Swiatek, who opens her campaign against Camila Osorio or Marie Bouzkova in round two, said: "It's hard to be winning all the time and be consistent."

Wuhan home favourite and last year's finalist Zheng Qinwen has withdrawn from the tournament as she continues to recover from right elbow surgery.

Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, who is fluent in Mandarin and whose mother is Chinese, will make her Wuhan debut by taking on American Ann Li.

Raducanu’s last two losses, in Beijing and Seoul, came after she held match points.

"It's not something that's really happened to me before and then to happen twice in a week was pretty new to get my head around,” the Briton said.

S.Ogawa--JT