'Rocky' and Rafael Nadal inspire Sabalenka
Naomi Osaka made waves at Wimbledon this week with her "Kill Bill"-inspired kimono, an homage to her Japanese culture and Lucy Liu's character in the Quentin Tarantino-directed martial arts movie.
Following her 6-1, 7-6 (9) win over McCartney Kessler on Wednesday at Wimbledon, World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was asked if there are any movie characters that inspire her, and might inspire future outfits.
"'Rocky,' maybe that," she said of the iconic Sylvester Stallone franchise about a down-on-his-luck boxer who perseveres to become champion. "But I don't know how I would do my outfit, if this is my inspiration. Going [to] the match with boxing gloves or something, that would be tricky."
The 24-time WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz champion added that she has a varied taste in films, spanning genres.
"There's so many movies that really inspire me," she said. "It can be comedy, it can be [a] love story. You get like one little phrase that really inspires you. I don't know if I will ever try to get inspired by the movie and create some outfit.
"I'll have to really think a lot, because there's probably so many great movies that you can get inspiration from. For now I'll say Rocky. Maybe I have to think a bit deeply."
Another film that really resonated with her, she said, was the new Netflix documentary Rafa, about 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal.
"He said, 'The only thing you can control is your focus and motivation,'" Sabalenka said. "It really [stuck] deep inside of me. Sometimes now, during the matches whenever things are going wrong, I'm like, 'The only thing you can control is focus and motivation.' That was very strong."
A three-time semifinalist at Wimbledon, Sabalenka has yet to drop a set through her first two matches, though she was tested in the second set against Kessler, coming from 5-2 down and narrowly taking the tiebreaker 11-9.
Sabalenka will play Jelena Ostapenko in the third round. Sabalenka has won three of their four career meetings, though Ostapenko won their most recent match, last year in Stuttgart.