Belarussian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka and her Belgian peer Elise Mertens have determined to place a brief maintain on their immensely profitable doubles pairing.
Continuing with their successful run, the pair lifted the ladies’s doubles crown on the Australian Open on Friday, beating Czech duo Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-3.
The pair was seeded second coming into the Grand Slam championship.
Sabalenka and Elise Mertens put momentary maintain on doubles pairing
It is known that the seventh-ranked Belarussian desires to focus extra on singles and preserve her power for large tournaments.
Sabalenka reached the fourth spherical of the singles championship at Melbourne Park the place she was crushed in three units by 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
While the pair has determined to consciously uncouple, a phrase usually used to explain a cut up in amicable phrases, Sabalenka and Mertens will preserve that includes collectively in some 1000 and 500 tournaments on the WTA calendar.
The sixteenth ranked Belgian, too, made the fourth spherical of the singles championship earlier than going out in straight units to Czech star Karolina Muchova.
Her passage to Round-4 included an upset victory over Swiss tennis star Belinda Bencic.
Aryna Sabalenka and Elise Mertens adopted up their 2019 US Open win with Australian Open doubles title on Friday
The pair additionally clinched the 2019 US Open ladies’s doubles title, their first at companions, beating Australian World Number 1 Ash Barty and two-time Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka.
On her resolution to deal with singles, going ahead, Sabalenka said, “For sure I like to play doubles. I just want to try something else.”
The Belarussian had been on an unimaginable successful run in singles coming into Melbourne Park, as she adopted up her championship victories at Linz and Ostrava in 2020 with a glory run on the Abu Dhabi WTA this 12 months.
On whether or not she would pair up once more with the Belgian, Sabalenka stated, “I hope if one day I make a decision to come back in doubles, I have this girl over here for me.”
To that, Mertens stated she would gladly resolve to hitch up along with her good pal if she does resolve to return to doubles.
