{"id":357413,"date":"2024-01-04T11:59:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T12:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=357413"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:01:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:01:39","slug":"world-no-2-charms-aussies-with-cheeky-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=357413","title":{"rendered":"World No.2 charms Aussies with cheeky interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> has continued her strong form at the Brisbane International<\/a>, defeating Zhu Lin on Thursday night 6-1 6-0<\/a> to progress through to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWhile the world number two impressed on the court, her ability to charm the crowd in a classic post-match interview was another dazzling part of the 25-year-old's performance.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka's last appearance in Brisbane was a Federation Cup tie against Australia, and she wasn't afraid to remind the crowd who they supported last time around. \ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie great calls for radical Steve Smith switch<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Call for Tests to make permanent switch after 'frustrating' bad light<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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"It's definitely better playing the tournament because last time I played here, I mean obviously you guys supported Australians, so it wasn't like that great atmosphere for us, but I'm super happy to be back and super happy to feel the support," she told Jelena Dokic on Nine's post-match coverage, to the cheers of the crowd .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It's been an amazing place, amazing city and I really hope I'm going to do really well here."<\/p>\n

The dominant round-of-16 win over Zhu meant Sabalenka\ufeff had only dropped four games in her opening two matches of the tournament. She spoke confidently about her form.<\/p>\n

"It's been an amazing two games, I think I played a really great match," she said.<\/p>\n

"Even though the score is 6-1 6-0 it wasn't an easy match, she played really great tennis.<\/p>\n

"Of course I'm super happy with the level (of performance) and super happy with the win today."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Brisbane International for free on Nine and<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world number two went on to thank the Brisbane crowd for its somewhat late night support. \ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Brisbane<\/p>\n

"Thank you so much for staying (out), it's not that late, but staying back late and supporting us," she laughed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"Thank you, you really make this place special."<\/p>\n

Sabalenka's win over Zhu made it 13 victories in a row in Australia.<\/p>\n

It continues her love affair with the country after winning the Australian Open in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Aryna<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is hoping she can replicate that performance but is putting last year's success in the back of her mind. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's a bit different, I improved myself a lot last season and going here this year I knew that I would get some support and it would be enjoyable to play (but) I'm trying to not focus on the previous result here … I hope I'm going to improve my game this summer and overall this season," she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka has continued her strong form at the Brisbane International, defeating Zhu Lin on Thursday night 6-1 6-0 to progress through to the quarter-finals. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357419,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357413\/revisions\/357419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/357415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}