WHOOP Podcast - Defending US Open Champion Aryna Sabalenka's Guide To Training Your Mind And Body To Win

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

On this episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed sits down with World #1 Tennis Player Aryna Sabalenka. Aryna opens up about her journey from first picking up a racket at six years old to becoming the top-ranked player in the world. She reflects on the role her father played in her early development, the turning point when she fell in love with the game, and how her mindset has evolved through the years.Aryna shares an inside look at her training, recovery, and how WHOOP helps stay on top of her game. Aryna discusses balancing fun with competitiveness, the lessons she’s learned from setbacks, and her strategies for staying resilient under pressure.Looking ahead to the US Open, Aryna shares what the tournament means to her personally and how she’s preparing to defend her title. Aryna reflects on her game and shares her advice to young athletes chasing their dreams.(00:58) Building A Career In Tennis(03:36) The Road to Becoming World #1(06:50) Mindset and Keeping Things Light Hearted As A Team (07:38) How Aryna Views Herself and Her Game On Court(09:03) Aryna’s Training and WHOOP Data(17:41) Having a Red Recovery Going Into The US Open Final(20:39) Travel Tips For Peak Performance(21:43) Aryna’s Definition of Success(26:27) Looking Ahead to The US Open: What The Tournament Means to Aryna(27:50) Reflecting on Past Competitions(30:46) The Differences in The Men’s and Women’s Game(31:53) The Secret to Maintaining A Positive Mindset(34:20) Rapid Fire Questions(37:04) Build The Best Tennis Player(38:17) Aryna’s Lowest RecoveryFollow Aryna Sabalenka:InstagramYouTubeXSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

I would call my game very aggressive and I would call myself very emotional. I'm just trying to look at each year as if I got better at something that I wasn't really good enough before. I'm just trying to have fun and trying to stay in the moment and I'm not really trying to put a lot of expectation of myself. And also I have a fun team around me so we're always having so much fun and it also helps to be really focused and kind of like aggressive on the court the way I am. Arena, welcome to the Whoop Podcast. Thank you for having me. Thanks for doing this. I've been a huge admirer of your career, especially of late.

It seems to be taking off, and you're an amazing ambassador, I think, for the game of tennis. Thank you for having me. I love whoop. And we've just talking before, I've been wearing a whoop for 1,199 days. It's a pretty good data streak. It's a good streak, right? so let's go back for a second when did you start playing tennis oh it's been a while I started when I was six years old so I'm playing tennis for 21 years can you believe well you're doing pretty well at it and and was it love at first sight like did you immediately love the game

I don't really remember like the first days of playing tennis but they remember there was a period when I was like eight or nine years old where when I wanted to quit but I just didn't want to disappoint my parents and I was like I'll just give it another like try and see if I if I'll still be in love with the game or or or I have to quit and after two weeks of really struggling I like I really fall in love I was waiting for the for the practice every day and yeah I just you know like I just waited for two weeks and then my love increased in tennis and you played a lot with your father I mean he brought me to tennis and yeah I was till I think for teen I was always with my father on the

tournament he was always bringing me on court and yeah he was always there for me so yeah my my father was a huge inspiration of my tennis career. Was there a particular moment you remember where you realize, like, wow, I'm pretty good at this? You know, it's one thing to fall in love with a sport. I think many of us fall in love with sports. It's another thing to realize, you know, I could play this professionally.

Honestly, that's crazy, because I think till my 16 or 17, I've been just doing it because that was the only thing I knew how to do, and I loved it, and I was very disciplined, I was training a lot. But I wasn't really thinking about, like, if I felt, if I have a chance or should I be a tennis player, I was just doing it and slowly start playing the tournaments. And I think closer to 17, I was like, well, maybe I've got a chance, so I'll give it a try.

So I think, let's say, from 16 to 17, which is crazy, you know. I feel like nowadays kids, they so much into tennis and they want to be professional since very young, you know? For me, it's a bit like, it's been different. They specialize earlier. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Maybe they're more matured and they grow faster than my generation. I don't know.

And so in the last 10 years, I mean, obviously you realized you were good at 17. Today you're the world number one. What do you think has changed for you as a tennis player? I mean, it was hard work. It was a lot of hours. and hours of repetitions and, yeah, a lot of ups and downs. And I think tennis gave me so much of understanding life and learning how to be better every day. Well, I think one thing that I've listened to you talk a little bit about is sort of a shift

in your mindset over the last 10 years and the way you've approached the game? I think, yeah, when you just starting, you're kind of like learning about the game, about how things are working, you're learning yourself, you know, like how you react to things. And yeah, and with years, you're just trying to get better in everything and you improve in every asset of the game, you know, like your mental part of the game. and the way you see stuff. So with years, you're just improving and getting better and you see stuff different with years, you know?

So I think it's a long process, you know, of understanding things. One observation I have is it feels like you're playing loose. It feels like you're yourself. You know, you don't seem to have the same tension or anxiety that sometimes a fan can witness of other professional athletes. you sort of have a free way about you. And in a lot of ways, it looks like you're having fun. I think it's important to have fun because, as you said,

so many players got exhausted pretty early because they were too much, too hard on themselves, too much into the professional set of the game and just kind of like, wasted their energy on the wrong stuff. what I learned with years that it's really important to balance, you know, your professional life with your personal life and it's important to have fun and enjoy the journey, like enjoy ups and also enjoy downs, you know?

As long as you can, you know, like, feel something, like, it means that you're living and you have to enjoy it. And I always, I'm a fun person, you know, like I'm not the one who's going to be too long in depression or something or too long into this disappointment part of the game. I'm just trying to have fun and trying to stay in a moment and I'm not really trying to put a lot of expectation of myself. And also I have a fun team around me so we're always having so much fun and it also helps to be really focused and kind of like aggressive on the court the way I am.

Speaking of your team and having fun, your coach almost like, seemingly overnight got a pretty meaningful tattoo at one point. Talk a little bit about that. I mean, it wasn't a permanent tattooing, but I don't know. Honestly, I don't know how we always get to that crazy stuff, you know? Like, I don't know. It just like, we just follow in the flow and one day he came and he showed that tattoo. and I was like, okay, put it on your head. And he's like, okay.

And then he went to the bathroom. He did it. He came back. I'm like, well, that looks good. So maybe you should go for a real one, you know. And then he said no, but probably one day he's going to show up with a real tiger tattoo on his head. Some people have described your game as, like, emotional,

and you show a lot of emotion on court. Do you think that's a fair categorization? I would call my game very aggressive, and I would call myself very emotional. So, yeah, I would kind of agree with that. And do you think you've had that kind of aggressiveness as a player since you were 17, or is it something that you've intentionally kind of grown into? Oh, I had it since my 6th. Okay, since day 1.

My goal was to hit the ball as hard as possible. And as far as possible? Not really far as possible, I was trying to bring it, you know, inside of that square thing. But yeah, I would go all over the place and with the years I just kind of like bring my target inside of the court. Well, your aggressiveness certainly shows up in your power, right? I mean, one of the most amazing statistics about your game is that your forehand is more powerful than I think every men's player. I mean, probably it just happened for once. and now everyone says that I'm more powerful, but they have a better consistency using that power, you know?

My forehand is, yeah, it's still in progress, you know, work in progress, but I can hit some strong forehands. Let's talk a little bit about training, because I know you're super into training and obviously very healthy. You've been on whoop for quite some time, which is awesome. and why don't we talk about your health span, which of course is your Woop age. So you're 27 going on 19, according to Woop. That's pretty good. My 18 birthday coming soon, so I'll see you all enlightened. That's pretty good.

I'm impressed, first of all, with your sleep consistency, which is close to 80%. You know, sleep consistency, going to bed and waking up at the same time, that's very hard for people who travel as much as you do. Yeah, I mean, I never had... struggle with the sleep. You just give me a opportunity and I'm going to go and sleep because I know how important it is. So, yeah. And it's very important to perform well. It's important to get your hours of sleep and every person have a different amount of hours. And I'm always trying to, you know, stay in my like seven to nine hours. Yeah, I mean, you certainly spend like

eight or nine hours in bed and you're getting, on average, between 7.45 and just over eight hours of sleep a night. That's terrific. No, that's very important. And just, you know, of course, making you younger, which is good. Close to 20,000 steps a day. I assume a lot of that's from tennis. I believe so, yeah. Do you find you're doing kind of active recovery throughout the day and moving around a lot, or will you have a hard session and then kind of shut down? Well, I think moving is healing you know so you gotta stay active and like do some mobility and and I feel like whenever I'm not doing anything like laying in the couch I think it's actually makes me feel worse and then on the next day actually my whoop for example recovery is going like into the yellow zone or even

like red zone and whenever like I have a day off and I'm like keep moving keep like doing stuff maybe a little bit of mobility. The next day, my recovery is much higher. So for me, moving is healing, you know. Moving is healing. I like that. What sorts of things do you do when you have a lower recovery? I try to get more hours of sleep, and I do some mobility.

And, yeah, basically that's it. That's what usually helps to get back on track. Do you have a bedtime routine, like certain things you like to do before? bed. Yeah, my skin... You do some skin care? My skincare, yeah. How about, like, anything related to the bedroom itself? Do you like it dark, cold?

For me, it has to be very cold. Me too, yeah. Yeah, it's like, I don't understand how people can sleep when it's like, like, so warm. Like, I feel, and actually I have to say that I've been tracking my whoop when my AC in the hall room wasn't working and I was too lazy to switch the room. rooms. So I had to, you know, like... And then you realized you didn't sleep as well. I cannot sleep when it's warm. And then my recovery always been in the yellow zone.

And then when I put it like in like really cold, like I don't know, like 17 or 16 degrees, like my recovery goes like really high. And it's also has to be like really dark and quiet. So it's tricky with me to find like a perfect hotel to stay or, yeah, it's... So good sleep hygiene. You have very good sleep hygiene. Yeah. And any type of breathing techniques you'll do or anything like meditation? Yeah, yeah, we do. Like it all depends on the situation and when I need like an extra recovery, like on the tournaments after a crazy match and it's pretty late and you come back and you still, you know, kind of like pumped up, you know?

Like we do some breathing, like legs up breathing before bad time just to, you know, like slow down the heart rate and you know. down the heart rate and just to kind of switch off from everything so yeah we do some breathing and then I go to bed because once again sleep is very important so you'll do that like to relax at the end of the day yeah do you ever find yourself doing visualization of matches or anything like that I've been trying but then you can go like really deep into that stuff so I'm like I'm trying to do it a little bit whenever I do like the breathing technique I always like you know try to Think about tennis, what I want to see on court, and a little bit of that part, but not too much Yeah, it seems you naturally have, like, a positive disposition.

You don't strike me as someone who carries a lot of anxiety going into a match. Is that fair? Yeah, I just, you know, I think it's important to understand that everyone feels the same, and it also helps to, you know, I don't know, relax a little bit before the match. Yeah, everyone's under the same pressure, so to speak. everyone experienced the same stress you know and when you're young you think that you're the only one who's feeling that way and then you keep thinking about that then you try to get rid of it which is never works you start thinking even more about that and it's you know you

you're pretty exhausted before going into the match so i think it's important just to understand that we all people and we all experience the same and it's absolutely normal to be little bit stressed and then you you forget about that and you're able to focus on the actual match it's a good attitude okay back to your glowing green health span here 680 minutes a week of time in heart rate zones one to three I assume a lot of that's from tennis well yeah you play a lot of tennis yeah are there other types of workouts you've gotten into doing off the tennis court of course we do a lot of gym A lot of gym.

Yeah, and it depends on the period. It can be conditioning, can be some body weight, can be some ability. But, yeah, it's tennis and gym. What's up, folks, if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health, performance, fitness, you may really enjoy getting a whoop. That's right. You can check out whoop at whoop.com.

It measures everything around sleep, recovery, strain and you can now sign up for free for 30 days. So you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days, see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at whoop.com. Back to the guests. Your sleep stress, I was just looking at this, is essentially zero. So you don't have any stress when you're going to sleep, even during tournaments. Yeah, you just need to find the perfect way going to the back. because before I would force myself, like after like late matches, I would come back and it's pretty late, for example, 1 a.m. And I would try to force myself to go to bed and it never works. Then it's like

the hours are much less and the recovery. It's not that good and HRV is like really low. So I'm not really forcing. I can be awake till like four like trying to you know like be in my routine which would be you know like in a normal day like for example I get back at I don't know like seven eight or seven or eight and then I would just like watch some netflix like be like chill not without like forcing myself and then like apparently you just fall asleep so even when I'm like late after much I'm like I'm not forcing and I still going to get my hours of sleep even if I go to like to bed at 4 a.m I will get my hours of sleep and and then go go practice you recently had a VO2 max of 55, which is quite high. The VO2 max being like how much oxygen consumption your body

can consume. So that's obviously a sign that your body is peaking physically. And it seems like leading up to Wimbledon, there were a lot of things trending in the right direction from a physiological standpoint. Well, I mean, I don't know how, maybe because of my biological age and my body is like really working well. Your whoop is in special. fired you? Yes, I love it. When I saw the numbers, I was like, did you guys actually did something in the system? Just so I felt good.

No, we didn't do anything. We didn't do anything. That's your real data. How about when you get a score that's like a bad score, but you have to perform? So remarkably, you had a 24% red recovery at the final of the US Open last year. I mean, once again, I look at this as a normal situation. I've been playing for like two weeks, like high intensity matches. And of course, like, you know, it's tough to be like on the top of the recovery.

And also, you know, body always have some extra. And like when I saw that numbers, I wasn't sad or anything. And it didn't really affect my performance because I was like, well, I'll think about that later. I'll just like give it all, everything I have. And then after the match, I'll have like few days to recover so nothing to be worried about. I think that's a good resilient attitude. I sometimes hear from people, oh, well, I'm afraid to see a bad score and that score is going to affect me mentally. But I do think that you can build a mindset around being able to overcome these

things. No, but like when you wear your device constantly, you know, like you learn that, for example, you can be like on the peak of your like data, but then like your days, you know, you're not going really well and you don't feel good or you don't perform well. And then you have days when like your data is like really low but you like feel good and you perform well and you know like it just it's a learning process like so so you have this good attitude like it's okay, I'm just learning. Let's see how can I perform at this data, you know? So my mindset is like that. So I just because I don't want that numbers to affect my performance. So I just have like

of positive attitude towards... Well, I think that's terrific. Are there any specific things, like, from a lifestyle standpoint or a behavior standpoint that you've noticed affect your recovery on whoop? You know, I mean, an obvious one's alcohol, but like... Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, when you...

Actually, my whoop age was 19.6 and then I had one week of vacation right now where I allow myself to have a little drinks and now I'm 19.7. So no alcohol, I believe. And then whenever I would just do stuff that brings me joy, like it can be different stuff. Like, for example, shopping, or I went for a good dinner. I would see that, like, on the next day, my wood data is like... A little better?

Much better, yeah. So shopping is good for your company, of course. Yeah, shopping, like, yeah, spending money, buying good things. Also, receiving great gifts from my boyfriend, just so you know. you're inspiring a lot of people on this podcast yeah and no alcohol otherwise your biological age going to go do you have any tips for travel

you know getting on a plane long international flight things like hydration or sleeping trying to get on the right time zone or not the right time zone definitely if you go to the plan it's hydration try to eat clean do not like snack a lot and I still think that sleep on the plan is important because anyway like the sleep on the plan it's so different it's so it's not a deep sleep it's you know it's just kind of like napping so I think it's important because like trying to stay awake it's like you keep snacking you're watching a lot of like a screen you know like watching TV or like being

on the internet so I think it's important just to chill there drink water And yeah, hydration is the key, and sleep or a little nap is also important. Even if you're going to land in the evening at your destination, I think it's still important to just chill at the plane a little bit. When you reflect on a season, what are the things that you look at in terms of success? So, for example, right now, you're very dominantly world number one. I think you've got like 12,000 points and the number two has 7,000. So you're well-in-ahead, the best player in the world.

And then last year, though, you won two majors. So, like, how do you think about that 24 versus 25? Well, I think, I mean, it depends how you look at both years. But I'm just trying to look at each year as if I got better at something that I wasn't really good enough before. So I think this year I got better on so many things, and I think, yeah, I still achieved a lot of things. And I think both years were really successful in a different ways. So I'm pretty happy right now for my year. Well, it's going really well, and you're playing phenomenally well.

When you say you feel like you've gotten better at specific areas, what are you thinking of? I would say the way I managed my stress, I got much better also like some tennis things that I learned to improve and got better at. And also, yeah, the way I manage all of the stress, expectations, like the mental part of the game, I think, yeah, I improved a lot in that. In the last few years, it feels like you've brought the drop shot more into you. your game, is that fair? Yeah. By accident. I mean, I always been really good in the touch game on the practice court, but I would never

really try it on the match court because I wasn't really sure how to use those shots. And then I was playing a match and I got injured in Rome. And the only option for me was just like to short the points. And I was like, okay, whatever, I'm going to just go for the drop shots. And I think I made, like, I don't know, close to 30 drop shots and all of them were really successful. And I was like, well, maybe that's, you know. That's part of it. That's a good one, you know.

So I started to use drop shot more often after, like, that much in Rome. The interesting thing about the drop shot for a player that's as powerful as you are is that you can hit a drop shot and lose the point. But it creates now something for your opponent to be thinking about. Yeah, exactly. And now they're moving forwards. When you come up to hit an approach, and it makes all of a sudden your power game that much better. Yeah, sometimes it's not really about winning in the moment, meaning like that point. But it's more about, like, put that little dapped in their head.

Yeah. And then it's going to bring much more benefits in the future points. So sometimes you just do that for that particular reason. Just to plant that seed of, I can do this to you. Yeah. Just so the players step in a little bit and then you can go back to your powerful shots, but they too close to the courts to deal with that power. When you say you want to improve an area of your tennis game,

how do you decide that you're going to work on it? Is it something that you've observed in matches that you didn't feel comfortable doing? Is it something where your coach or members of your team say, hey, we want to see work on this? I think we just talk a lot with the team and each member of a team brings something on the table and then we discuss and then we just decide okay i think we need like we think like we need to get better at something uh in tennis and we just go and work on that i think it's really important to talk a lot with your team to get to something because sometimes

you see things differently than they see from the side and and and yeah through through talking through lots of conversations, options, and just through, yeah, through normal conversation. You're invited to join the waitlist for WOOP Advanced Labs. Advanced Labs delivers clinician reviewed lab results right into your WOOP app for the most complete view of your biomarkers and biometrics and the most comprehensive understanding of your health.

Unlike other tests, WOOP integrates your lab results with your Woop. see how your habits and behaviors influence your biomarkers and get clear guidance on what to change to improve your results to join the wait list visit our website or the health tab in the whoop app you are the defending champion for the us open coming up what's the us open like for you i love it it's it's one of my favorites for sure it's very hectic but i enjoyed that craziness over there And I don't know, I just like every time I play on the stadium, I feel so good. I feel like home for some reason. And I always want to stay there as long as possible.

So Use Open is a big one. That's why I think last year I was more happy about Use Open than Australia Open. I don't know why, but Usupon felt so special. It has a special energy. You know, I grew up on Long Island and I would go to... the U.S. Open with my dad, you know, almost every year as a kid. And especially those matches under the lights when the crowd gets into it and people've had a few drinks and there's like a liveliness.

As long as they don't close the roof, I love it because when they close the roof, when I played against Coco, my ears were hurting so much because they were so loud. It was so loud, yeah. So loud. I don't know, like the sound goes like right on you. But the energy is always special. I feel like every person in New York is into tennis and you can fill it in the crowd.

I feel like you and Coco did a good job kind of resolving that more recent sort of situation. I felt also like maybe you were a little unfairly criticized for some of your comments. It was right after the match and you were sort of expressing that you wanted to play better. I was just upset and honestly it was also like less for me, you know, just like to take my time.

I was super mad at myself and I made all of those comments even though I don't really think that. Yeah. And I felt so bad afterwards and I'm really glad that I message Coco and I'm really happy that she's such a nice girl that she was like, girl, it's okay, don't worry. We're friends, be good, I got it. And yeah, it was a tough moment.

Definitely never going to happen again. Well, those are important moments, though, because you learn a lot from it. You learn. And it's a reminder, you know, someone like you, you're under the camera so often, and you're under the microscope and these tournaments so often. It's almost easy to forget that you have all these people watching you. And then you say something like that, you kind of realize, oh, wow, like, you know, I have to be careful in this environment, too.

Exactly, exactly. And protect yourself, right? Yeah. The Wimbledon lost to Amanda, it seemed like you carried that with a very different attitude. Yeah, you know, I had my time. Of course, I yelled, I cried with the team. But myself, and I had like an hour and a half, I think, before media. And then I came there and I was like, well, what can I do right now?

And I was just like making fun of the whole situation. because, you know, the moment I entered the press conference room, it was full of people, you know? Like, usually it's a bit less than that. And I was like, oh, you guys are waiting for like some spiciness over here. I was like, you're not going to get it. That's exactly what they were waiting for. You know, so, yeah, I carried in a different way. And also, you know, I'm always very respectful to my opponents.

I'm not the one who's like going to be dissoned. respectful and that's just not me you know I've always been respectful but the thing is that like people always want to find something bad in you and the moment you screw up a little bit just a little bit let your emotions get over you people are gonna just like oh you see she's she's like that she's like that not I'm not you know and I just wanted to show at the Wimbledon that it was just a lesson you know like it wasn't me it was just like me not really well controlling my emotions, I think I just proved to the world that we all make mistakes.

And it's normal to make mistakes. I think you're totally right. As long as you learn from that, you know. Why do you think the men's game has had such stability at the top and the women's game has had so many different world number one? So in the last 15 years, there's been 17 different world number ones on the women's side. I mean, the way I see the woman's body are more complex than men's. And our hormones, our, like, everything is so different to men's.

Men's, they're most emotionally, they're more stable. So that's why they basically the same every day. Yeah, they can struggle with some things. But emotionally, they are stable. And I think that's why they're able to be. bring that consistency. Well, I think you're going to stay at the top for a while, so I feel... Fingers crossed.

I feel pretty good about that. I'm trying to work with my hormones and make sure that I have something good when I'm like, I can feel that, you know, like I'm getting really emotional. I have something that's going to bring me back to the positive mindset. What does bring you back to the positive mindset? Talking to my family, for example, just for a little bit, or... Or just go out, you know, out not like drinking, but like go to the place that I love to eat, for example, dinner. Or like if it's a morning, go for the breakfast, have my coffee with a beautiful view and just sit there and enjoy.

Like actually now it's reading. I'm not a book person. I'm more about like watching movies. but recently I've been into reading. And reading also helps to kind of like relax a little bit. So once again, like you live and you learn and you find those little things that's bring you joy and helps you to stay stable.

What have you been reading? Into the magic shop. Very easy book, but it's a real story and it's kind of like related to the brain. I love it. And now is a romantic book named called Maybe in the Next Life, In Another Life, Maybe in Another Life. And it's like a romantic comedy or something. Not comedy, just romantic.

Just romantic. Love story, I believe. I'm still reading some. I want to see where it leads. Well, I do think there's a phenomenon probably applies to professional athletes, but certainly for the rest of society, which is that, you know, our bodies are under-stimulated and our minds are over-stimulated. You know, you're looking at screens and phones and, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there's something about reading, which is, you know, pulls you out of that kind of dopamine cycle. Yeah, I mean, especially, yeah, this social life can be brutal, you know, and watching a lot and, you know, like comparing yourself to others. There's so many good images on social media which brings anxiety to you sometimes, you know. So I think it's important to, you know, stay away from that for a little bit, not for forever, but just for a little bit. Give yourself your time and read, help your recovery, and just be happy.

Okay, we're going to do some rapid-fire questions. Oh, wow, okay. Let's do that. This is excited. what's the most memorable sporting event you've watched I mean not like a sport event but watching basketball for me is amazing when you sit there and you see the I look at this from like a professional point of view and see the way these guys like moving from like with their with their height is like it's impressive I'm always like just stuck looking at their legs I'm

like calling my fitness course like well we're definitely doing something wrong or yeah I watched soccer and you know for me it's crazy because I've never been into the soccer and then I went like watch it life and it was like I think World Cup final and I really loved it watching life for me there was like wow that's crazy okay maybe maybe I like soccer actually what's your advice to a 17 year old girl right now who wants to be a pro athlete do not listen people from the outside Just ignore and they don't know anything and focus on yourself and make sure that every day you're getting better. That's pretty good advice for entrepreneurs too, by the way. When I was young and starting this company, that would have been good advice.

Really? Yeah. Because when you start a company, nobody believes? No one believes, you know, and you kind of have to go inwards and find that sense of confidence. And it's a game of rejection. You know, you get rejected a lot. You know, people you want to recruit, money you want to raise, product you want to build. These things all don't really work initially.

As long as you believe in something, you should just follow your beliefs. People always want to screw you down. There's certainly a feeling, I think, if you're trying to do something that hasn't been done before, that you're going to face a lot of criticism. And in the case of being a pro athlete, it's kind of the equivalent of not having done something before because, you know, how many people that you grew up with are pro athletes now? Not many. None, probably.

So, you know, the equivalent of your circle when you were young thought it was impossible. Yeah, but I believe that people who really keeps it all in whatever they have passion to, like the hard work and they put it as a main priority, I don't know, call it God or like, or energy, something going to give your opportunities. So if you're really into something, just put it as a main priority and you will have a chance. I believe in that. I believe that too.

OK, we're going to build the best tennis player. OK, so you can pick any. That's a tough one. I always pick myself, even though I'm not that in love with myself. OK. Serve. I mean, I would go for Roger. It wasn't like the speed-wise, the biggest serve, but the targets he was putting it was the best, I think.

Okay, forehand. Forehand. Okay, Janik. Backhand. Novak. This is a good tennis player we're putting together here. Volley. Volley, wait, let me just think.

Oh my gosh. I cannot, like... Navratilo. And the mental side? Novak. Why Novak for mental? I mean, he's the best at mental part of the game, and I love talking to Novak. And every time he gives me advice, it's really, like a small thing, but it really helps me a lot.

Okay, last question. What is your lowest recovery? ever on whoop. One percent. One percent. Is there a good story behind it? Let me think. I mean, there is, it was two times. Once I was, I lost

U-sop and final. I went to the bar with my team. I had a lot of tequillas. Like, not the shots, but the one like, I think they call it golden tequila, which you just sip as a viscous. or cognac, you know. So I had, like, I think, three or four, like, glasses of that. Next day, I woke up, it was 1%. And another one, I was getting sick. And I woke up, it was

1%. And I was, like, I was checking my data. And I was like, okay, probably we better just, you know, go see the doctor or just add someone nutrition stuff in my, in my routine, just so I don't get sick the next day. So one is funny. One is like, you know. It is kind of telling that one's alcohol and one's sickness, you know. You know, so it's a kind of similar, you know. If I had to guess, it was going to be like, it was probably alcohol or sickness. Well, this has been really fun, Arina. We're so, you know, grateful for your performance and career and for being a partner of WOOP.

I love being partner. Thank you for having me. Okay. Thank you. If you enjoyed this episode of the WOOP podcast, please leave a rating or review. Check us out on social at Woop at Will Ahmed. If you have a question, what's answered on the podcast. Email us, podcast to Woop.

Call us 508-443-49-5-2. If you think about joining Whoop, you can visit Whoop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. New members to use the code Will W-I-L to get a $60 credit on Whoop accessories when you enter the code at checkout. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the Whoop podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.