This article was originally published in May 2024 and has been updated to reflect current information.
The pivotal before-and-after moment in Aryna Sabalenka’s life occurred five years ago when her father, Sergey, a former ice hockey player, suddenly passed away from meningitis at 43. Sabalenka was just 21 at the time. Another transformative moment in her tennis career took place in August 2022 in Toronto after a grueling three-set loss to Coco Gauff in the National Bank Open’s round of 16.
During that game, Sabalenka struggled with 18 double faults following previous games where she committed 16, 20, and 23 double faults. Her serve had completely unraveled. After the match, while sitting on the ground in Canada and crying, she told her coaches, Jason Stacy and Anton Dubrov, that she had tried everything to fix it, from sports psychologists to endless practice, but nothing worked. Stacy, a high-performance expert, claimed she hadn’t faced her deepest fear yet — rebuilding her serve from scratch, which terrified her more than double-faulting on international television.
He challenged her with a pivotal question, demanding she face her fear, or they would end the season then and there. Sabalenka accepted the challenge without hesitation. Over two years later, she and her team celebrated a U.S. Open victory in New York, turning a painful past experience into triumph.
Fixing her serve wasn’t just a mechanical overhaul but required extensive mental resilience. Sabalenka’s double faults once defined her 2022 season, leading to a moment in tears in Toronto. There, Stacy handed her the phone to speak with Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics expert who assured her that the issue wasn’t purely mental but mechanical. MacMillan quickly identified flaws in her serve’s mechanics and worked intensively to correct them over three days. While results were mixed initially, Sabalenka started seeing fewer double faults and a noticeable improvement in her game.
This transformation didn’t happen in isolation. Sabalenka’s close-knit team, including Stacy and Dubrov, were instrumental in her journey. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they meshed well due to their candid communication and Sabalenka’s insistence on authenticity. They pushed her to recognize and name her fears, transforming her internal struggles into solvable challenges.
Aryna Sabalenka has emerged as a resilient and formidable force in women’s tennis. Her journey went from serving nightmares to holding the prestigious U.S. Open trophy. She now thrives as the second-best women’s player globally, and her relentless pursuit of excellence has seen her make the semifinals in all four Grand Slams this past year alone.
Her rivalry with Iga Swiatek electrifies the tennis world, especially given their tight contests in Madrid and Rome. Sabalenka has become adept at maintaining her composure under stress, refining her techniques, and even incorporating playful yet high-stakes practice methods to keep herself sharp.
Supported by her dedicated team, Sabalenka continues to demonstrate why betting against her can be risky—whether in a tournament or playful, high-stakes training matches. Her resilience and openness to radically changing her approach have redefined her career, making her one of the most compelling figures in contemporary tennis.
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