Aryna Sabalenka said she will continue to “scream” and “throw the racket” as she believes it prevents her aggression from “destroying me inside.”

The world No 1 is known for being one of the more emotive players on tour but revealed she had once tried to control her emotions, only to find it actually made it worse.

“I would say that at the beginning, I was really trying to follow in the steps,” she told Andy Roddick on his podcast. “Like doing the breathing exercises, like counting up to 10 or all the way around, and I was just trying to be like calm and in control.

“But what I figured, after like I don’t know how many years on tour, probably I spent too much time trying to be perfect, and that it was like really destroying inside of me, destroying myself inside.

“And I was just trying to figure it. ‘Okay, who am I?’ Like, should I be that way, or should I just sometimes, like, throw this racket, pay the fine but be free on court and feel like okay I’m ready to go.

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“[So] I don’t have this aggression that was destroying me inside and I can just focus on the game and I just decided that well if I have to yell, if I have to scream, if I have to throw the racket, I will do it as long as it’s in control, as long as I’m not hurting anyone.”

It is a strategy that worked well with Sabalenka the favourite to retain her US Open crown. As to how she deals with the pressure, the 28-year-old said she just tries to “shift my focus on things that I can control.”

“I mean, I feel like at some point you just agreed to deal with that pressure all the time,” she said when reflecting on her choice of career. “So it just stays at the back of your mind and that’s it.

“You’re not trying to fight it. I feel like we’re all dealing with different sorts of pressure in our lives. It can be sport-related. It can be whatever related. It’s not necessary that it’s only in tennis, in sport, you’re dealing with pressure.

“So it’s just part of our lives, and I’m just trying to shift my focus on things that I can control and just trying to get better every day.”

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