Women's tennis world no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka praises Ash Barty as one the smartest oppositions she's faced ahead of Wimbledon quarter final
The Belarusian cruised past home favourite Emma Raducanu in London in the third round of the tournament on Saturday, before knocking out her former doubles partner and 24th seeded Elise Mertens in the round of 16 with a convincing 6-4 7-6 performance.
The Belarusian moves on to the quarter final where she will look to end the hot run of 104th ranked Laura Siegemund.
The 37-year-old German has stunned tennis crowds, making history by reaching just the second Grand Slam singles quarter final of her career, one of the oldest competitors to achieve the feat.
Siegemund stunningly has also not dropped a set along the way, including in a resounding knockout of against American ace Madison Keys in the third round.
But it seems Sabalenka may have a particular edge after she revealed she has taken a lot of insight from some of the games best and applied it to her own, citing Aussie Barty as one of the sport's most knowledgeable competitors in the process.
'Someone I played against, I think actually Barty was always very smart and she definitely understands the game quite well. I think she was the smartest one,' Sabalenka said.
The 27-year-old also detailed overcoming mental challenges, a successful venture learnt from Novak Djokovic.
'Not like someone I played against but definitely talking a lot to Novak, he definitely has a lot of knowledge of the game and it's really helped me a lot several times. Basically whenever I talked to him it really helped me.
'One of the conversations went to managing energy, another one about the mental part of the game, then we had another conversation about mentally approaching those big finals.
'So I think mostly we're talking about the mental part of the game, but also one time he really helped me with my returns.
'Now he's always making fun of me copying his return, but I'm like man it's working, I'm copying the best. I probably have to talk to him more about tennis stuff.'
Djokovic also heads into the quarter final of the mens singles after coming back to defeat Aussie Alex de Minaur in four sets after what was a frustrating start.
Sabalenka will be taking all her experiences into the final stages of the tournament as she looks to make amends in London with hopes of obtaining her first Wimbledon trophy to add to her grand slam haul.
The Belarusian came agonisingly close to winning her maiden French Open title back in June after a three set thriller against American Coco Gauff so her fall just short, but will look to go one step further this time round.
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