“She was clearly messing around!”: Former Aryna Sabalenka’s coach recalls explosive 2018 argument

Dmitry Tursunov, former coach of Aryna Sabalenka, recently spoke about the attitude problems the current World No. 1 had during her early years on Tour, stemming from a heated argument they had in 2018 that led Sabalenka to want to fire him.

Tursunov was a tennis player who reached the top 20 in his professional career, with a couple of appearances in the 4th round of Wimbledon and up to 7 ATP titles. After his retirement, he began a coaching career on the WTA Tour, with several prominent names among his protégées, including former World No. 2 Anett Kontaveit, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, and former World No. 4 Belinda Bencic.

One of his first charges was none other than Aryna Sabalenka, when she was barely 20 years old and already starting to show glimpses of her talent. The Belarusian had a significant ascent in 2018, rising from No. 73 to nearly cracking the top 10 by the end of the year, maintaining a spot within the world's top 15 for several months.

One of the key figures in Sabalenka's growth was precisely Dmitry Tursunov, who joined Sabalenka during the 2018 grass-court swing, working together for about a year and a half. "For me, it was a period when I gave my all, sacrificed everything for the sake of the result. Aryna, due to her young age and ease, sometimes behaved incorrectly. Not on purpose, but some things offended me," he said.

Tursunov recently spoke with the Russian outlet Sports Express, where he recalled the difficult start of their relationship, even though Sabalenka quickly reached a final after only a few weeks of working with the Russian coach. He recounted the first time they had a disagreement: "2018, her first final on grass. The day before, Aryna played in doubles with Xie Shuwei — and was clearly messing around. Hee-hee, ha-ha... I exploded," he said.

"I said directly: 'You’re doing bullshit! Laughing, having fun on the court. This is disrespectful — to your partner, your opponents and yourself. Why waste time? You don’t strive to win, and you’re not preparing for tomorrow’s singles final. You have a chance to take the trophy — and you’re going to blow it all?!'"

Up to that point, Sabalenka had played two professional finals and lost both. "I was very upset by her behavior, her careless attitude to the matter. Hence the scolding. At that time she didn't understand what was going on. Why such a reaction." "We had a fight, Aryna went out to dinner with a sparring partner. In her eyes, he was a good cop, and I was an evil one. In addition, she complained about me to her sponsor, wanted to fire me," he said.

However, the second half of the year – with the start of the hardcourt swing – proved to be Sabalenka's definitive breakthrough, as she began to gain recognition on the Tour. Sabalenka dazzled, reaching the 4th round of Wimbledon and the semifinals in Cincinnati Open, in addition to winning her first WTA 1000 at the Wuhan Open – a tournament where she has won the title in all three of her participations to date – with an incredible 17-0 record.

In recent seasons, the now three-time Grand Slam champion has been one of the Tour's dominant forces. She reached World No. 2 in 2021 and has remained in the top 10 for the past five years. In fact, Sabalenka has now spent 47 weeks as World No. 1, ranking 14th among the 29 female tennis players who have reached the top of the rankings in the Open Era. Sabalenka is four weeks away from surpassing her compatriot Victoria Azarenka, and heading into the hardcourt swing, she appears to be the strong favorite, especially with the US Open, where she is the defending champion, in mind.