Aryna Sabalenka slept full eight hours after late-night finish at 2024 US Open

NEW YORK—For tennis players, it’s not a long match that hurts as much as the time allotted to recover.

Elite athletes are often restricted to tight turnarounds after spending hours on courts or finishing later than expected. Lucky for Aryna Sabalenka that she has a strong circadian rhythm.

The No. 2 seed came on court shortly after midnight for her third round against Ekaterina Alexandrova. After outhitting the No. 29 seed in three sets to keep her brat summer going, Sabalenka went straight to bed.

“That was really late start,” Sabalenka recalled with a laugh on Sunday. “Yeah. I don't know. You know, when you play in really deep stages of the tournaments, you don't care about timing.

“I was, like, ‘Okay, let's say it's morning practice if I'm, like, in Europe. Like, whatever, I don't care! I just want to win and go home.

“I got back at 3:00 a.m., probably fall asleep at 4:00, and I was completely off. I just fall asleep, which usually never happen like that, but I was able to get, like, eight hours of sleep, so I was okay. I had late practice. I did treatment.”

Less than 48 hours later, the reigning Australian Open champion was back on court against Elise Mertens, a good friend and former doubles partner.

“Yeah, I felt actually okay,” she added of her third-round recovery. “Even though we played three-sets match, but it was like an hour and 20 or 30 minutes, so it wasn't that physical match. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't play for, like, three hours and then, like, I don't know, I would probably come back at 5:00 a.m. and then this would be kind of, like, tricky!

“The main thing is that I'm really happy that I was able to sleep eight hours, which is, you know, not bad,” she finished, smiling.

Playing remarkably clean tennis, high-octane tennis, she struck an astounding 41 winners to just 28 errors to finish off the No. 33 seed, 6-2, 6-4.

“I really enjoy playing here,” she beamed. “The crowd are amazing. I really enjoying playing on these big stadiums, feel all the support. I just don't want to leave early here, you know. I just want to stay as long as I can and enjoy this beautiful court, beautiful atmosphere.”

It’s at this point that perhaps Sabalenka suffered some delayed onset fatigue.

“I think that's why I kind of like consistent—wait—consistent here. No. Consistently here. Yeah.

“Oh, my God, it's not that late, but my brain is not working right now!” she laughed.

Nothing that another eight hours of sleep can’t solve. Sabalenka will aim to be fully rested for her quarterfinal against Olympic medalists Zheng Qinwen or Donna Vekic, who were dealt a late start of their own Sunday night/Monday morning.