Sabalenka reached the ultimate at Flushing Meadows final 12 months, dropping to Coco Gauff in three units.
She began the 12 months in spectacular type, defending her Australian Open title with out dropping a set and taking simply 76 minutes to beat Zheng Qinwen within the ultimate.
She has typically been seen joking together with her teaching group and started a pre-match custom of writing her signature on her health coach Jason Stacy’s head in Melbourne.
Sabalenka mentioned her persona comes from her father, Sergey, a former ice hockey participant who died in 2019 and who she counts as her largest motivation.
“I want he could be nonetheless alive. I believe we might have a lot enjoyable collectively proper now,” she mentioned.
“Earlier than, I used to be in all probability an excessive amount of into tennis and attempting to be too targeted, placing myself below a lot strain.
“Recently, I simply realised that this isn’t how issues work. You need to steadiness this difficult work, these expectations, strain, and every little thing, with [a] little pleasure.
“You need to discover issues which convey you pleasure, and I’ve my loopy group and we’ve a lot enjoyable collectively.”
The US Open begins on Monday, with heavy title favorite Sabalenka opening her marketing campaign in opposition to qualifier Priscilla Hon.