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It had been a tough Grand Slam season for Aryna Sabalenka, who suffered heartbreaking losses in the finals of the Australian Open and Roland Garros. But she finally got her hands on another trophy in Flushing Meadows on Saturday night and admitted all of the hardships were worth it.

However, Sabaleka has now admitted that she had the "completely wrong mindset" going into the finals in Melbourne and Paris, and had to learn from her mistakes before she could defend her crown at the US Open.

Sabalenka obliterated her racket on the court after suffering a three-set defeat to lose the Aussie Open final to Madison Keys in January. A few months later, she sparked backlash after Coco Gauff beat her in another close championship match at the French Open.

The world No. 1 suggested that her own mistakes allowed Gauff to win the match, and claimed the American likely would have lost to Iga Swiatek. Sabalenka's comments sparked an uproar, and she later apologised to Gauff.

Now, Sabalenka has explained why she approached both of those matches with the mindset - and how she changed her attitude to beat Amanda Anisimova in New York.

"After Australian Open, I thought that the right way would be just to forget it and move on, but then the same thing happened at the French Open," she said.

"So after French Open I figured that, okay, maybe it's time for me to sit back and to look at those finals and to maybe learn something, because I didn't want it to happen again and again and again.

"So, yeah, I was in Mykonos, reading my book, enjoying the view, and I was just thinking, why would I let my emotions take control over me in those two finals?

"It felt like I thought that, okay, if I made it to the final, it means that I'm going to win it, you know, and I sort of didn't expect players to come out there and to fight. I thought that everything [was] going to go easily my way, which was completely wrong mindset, you know?"

Sabalenka had already suffered a brutal defeat to Anisimova in the Wimbledon semi-finals a few weeks ago. But she decided to take control over her emotions, and reaped the rewards of her new approach.

She added: "My mindset was just going out there, fight for every point. Doesn't matter the situation. Just focus on myself and focus on things that I have to do to win the match.

"I think from what I understand today, that the lesson learned, and I really hope it will never happen again if I'm going to be playing another finals, is that I will be more in control."

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