"The bigger thing was giving her power back": Aryna Sabalenka's coach explains how they solved serve riddle which unlocked new heights

When Aryna Sabalenka reached the top eight of the WTA rankings while barely trusting her own serve, even she struggled to explain how it was possible. For Jason Stacy, her coach, the answer revealed far more than a technical flaw, it exposed the deeper foundations of elite performance.

Stacy prior to the Australian Open recalls listening to Sabalenka speak on a podcast about that season, openly admitting that she was serving “very, very badly” and still competing with the world’s best. The numbers backed it up. At times, she was hitting 20 or more double faults per match. And yet, she reached the WTA Finals and remained among the top players in the world.

“It was insane,” Stacy said on Tennis Insider Club. “Without the serve, she was still top eight and making finals. That told me the rest of her tennis was giving her a lot of confidence. If she can do this without a serve, then you fix that — and you’re at the top.”

From the start, Stacy and his team knew the serve was the missing piece. But knowing something is wrong and being able to fix it are very different things — especially at the elite level. “There are certain things players just don’t want touched,” he explains. “They don’t want to talk about details because they’re afraid it’s going to mess them up.”

He compares Sabalenka’s situation to Andy Roddick’s serve — technically unconventional, but devastatingly effective. It was a “no-go zone,” something you simply didn’t interfere with. Sabalenka’s serve had become similar: flawed, fragile, but psychologically untouchable.

The breakdown, Stacy says, began late in the previous season. Something went wrong in a match. Sabalenka started thinking about it. That thought carried into the off-season, into the Australian Open, and then into an entire year of uncertainty.

What started as a technical and physical issue slowly became mental. “She had no sense of control,” Stacy explains. “She didn’t know why it wasn’t working. So she’d go out there thinking about everything — her toss, her legs, her arm, her wrist. When you don’t know what’s wrong, you can’t fix it.”

Despite the chaos, Sabalenka kept showing up. And for Stacy, that revealed something essential about her character. “One of her biggest strengths is also one of her biggest weaknesses,” he says. “She’s a fighter.”

She walked onto court knowing she might humiliate herself. Knowing the world was watching. Knowing people were waiting for the next double fault. And still, she competed.

“That showed how strong she was,” Stacy says. “But it also showed a young, emotional fighter mindset — ‘I’ll grind, I’ll fight, I’ll figure it out.’ That can get you far, but it’s not how you become the best.”

The fact that Sabalenka remained world-class without a functioning serve was not an accident. It was the result of years spent developing everything else: movement, power, resilience, tactical awareness, and competitive instincts.

Her serve was terrible, Stacy admits plainly. But she still made the top eight because she had so many other strengths. “That’s proof you can go really far even if things aren’t ideal,” he says, “as long as all the other pieces are there.”

The breakthrough came when avoiding the problem was no longer an option. After another painful loss, Sabalenka sat crying off court, asking what else could possibly be done. Stacy made the decision in that moment.

“What’s the point of showing up and doing the same thing over and over again?” he told her. “We’re either stopping right now, or we’re doing the thing we’ve been avoiding.”

That meant being vulnerable. Opening up. Facing the fear underneath the technical issue. A biomechanical specialist was brought in, and the work finally began — not just fixing the motion, but restoring understanding.

“Yes, it was a technical fix,” Stacy says. “But the bigger thing was giving her power back.”

Suddenly, Sabalenka knew why a serve went long or wide. She could feel it. She could adjust. That sense of control changed everything. “If you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, you go crazy,” Stacy explains. “And you just keep getting worse.”

Once the serve made sense again, all the other tools Sabalenka had been developing for years finally clicked into place. The missing border pieces of the puzzle were filled in.

For Stacy, Sabalenka’s journey highlights a wider issue in tennis development. Too much focus is placed on technique, and not enough on the human being holding the racket. “You have to learn the language of tennis,” he says. “That’s non-negotiable. But it’s just as important to help young players learn how to manage emotions, energy, pressure — and failure.”

Modern athletes face constant exposure. Social media, public scrutiny, and nonstop attention magnify every mistake. Unlike most people, athletes fail in front of the entire world. “That’s not easy to manage,” Stacy says.

He believes three qualities are essential: self-awareness, self-respect, and self-compassion. Self-respect isn’t arrogance, he explains — it’s how you carry yourself. And self-compassion isn’t weakness — it’s the ability to make mistakes without destroying your identity.

“Performing your best over the long haul isn’t more confidence,” Stacy says. “It’s self-compassion.”

That idea resonated deeply with Caroline Garcia, who shared her own experience of reaching the top while feeling empty. Wins brought expectations, not fulfilment. Her identity became inseparable from results.

Stacy sees that story far too often. “People think getting there will fix everything,” he says. “And then they get there and don’t like who they are. Or they can’t repeat it. Or they burn out.”

Success without alignment, he believes, is fragile. Your self-image, Stacy explains, is shaped by everything you’ve experienced so far — but that also means it can change. “Awareness alone is powerful,” he says. “Once you see it, you get to decide who you want to become and where you want to go.”

That realisation, he believes, is what separates sustainable excellence from short-lived success. It’s also why Sabalenka survived one of the most public struggles of her career — and came out stronger on the other side. “She kept showing up,” Stacy says. “Not because everything was perfect, but because the foundation was already there.”

And in the end, that foundation mattered far more than any single stroke.