Sabalenka’s English, it must be said, has vastly improved since we first spoke in an empty player area at the 2018 National Bank Open—so long ago the WTA website stopped hosting the article. Anyway, she had just turned 20, Beats headphones were wrapped around her neck and swear words flowed almost freestyle in the absence of cleaner prose. Given the ill luck she has encountered at the last two major tournaments, she would be forgiven for letting a curse or two loose in private.

She was rounding into form at Roland Garros when a stomach bug hastened her exit in the quarterfinals, and while we already discussed Wimbledon, it’s worth noting the depths to which this injury shook The Girl with the Tiger Tattoo.

“It was a disaster for me,” she said plainly. “I felt like, because I didn’t stop when I had to, I got to the point when I got injured. I thought the only way to get through a difficult challenge was just to work through it, keep focusing on my job. It was too much stress on myself without realizing that.”

She returned to action on hard courts with a healed body but doubtful mind, an unfamiliar state for a player who, win or lose, plays the most effectively affirmative style on offer within the women’s field.