Tennis-No more outside courts for me, only centre court from now on, says Sabalenka

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By Karolos Grohmann

PARIS (Reuters) -World number one Aryna Sabalenka is done playing on the outside courts in Paris and wants only the centre court from now on as she chases her first French Open crown.

The top seed has played two of her four matches so far on the Suzanne Lenglen court — the second court with a capacity of 10,000 — including Sunday’s straight sets win over American Amanda Anisimova.

The Belarusian three-time Grand Slam champion, however, now wants her quarter-final against China’s seventh-seed and Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen to be scheduled on the Philippe Chatrier court, which fits 5,000 more fans than the Lenglen.

“If you ask me what I prefer, I prefer to play on Philippe Chatrier,” Sabalenka told a press conference.

“Why the decision was to put me on that court for the second time, I don’t know. Hopefully from now I’m going to be playing only on Philippe Chatrier. I think I should be, right?,” she said.

Sabalenka said while playing on the smaller court gave fans without tickets to the showcase court the opportunity to watch her play, the Philippe Chatrier had a different aura and a bigger audience.

“When you play on the biggest courts, they show those matches on the TV, so more people are watching and you can show yourself to more people,” Sabalenka said.

“Also, the court is so beautiful, and it’s much bigger. The moment you step on the Chatrier, you feel like, okay, this is a big stage, and this is where I’m meant to be.”

“This is where I want to compete, and I want to fight, and I want to bring my best tennis. So I think it’s all about the energy of the stadium.”

(Reporting by Karolos GrohmannEditing by Frances Kerry)