“The more you give attention to hate, the more it takes energy from you”: Aryna Sabalenka opens up on online abuse

Aryna Sabalenka addressed the online abuse she has received on social media while preparing for her debut at the Wuhan Open. The World No. 1, known for her constant activity on social media, admitted that she sometimes sees the messages she receives and stated that she would not change her approach to social media because of the negativity she has encountered.

In the age of social media, athletes—and tennis players in particular—have often spoken about online abuse, receiving hateful comments and messages—often from bettors, something that has become a reality for most top-level athletes, even for someone like the four-time Grand Slam champion.

“Well, I think all of us go through a lot of hate,” Sabalenka commented in her press conference. “Throughout my career, I faced a lot of hate and a lot of different hate for different reasons. So I figured that the more you give attention to that, the more it takes energy from you.”

“I feel like it’s better to ignore it, but sometimes, of course, I see those messages, and out of curiosity, I go to the page of the person who messaged me,” the World No. 1 explained. “Sometimes I’m shocked. Sometimes there’s like, mothers messaging such terrible things. Sometimes it just you can see the person is doing nothing and commenting on people who is trying to do something in life, who is trying to motivate, inspire next generation.”

Sabalenka, however, has chosen an approach of not giving importance to people's comments and not letting it prevent her from sharing part of her life on social media. “I take it as a joke. I feel like they’ve never been in our shoes, and to make such terrible comments. It’s just, it just shows how terrible they are as people. And I think every player should take it as a joke and never, never, ever really go deep into that dark, dark space of social media.”

The three-time Wuhan Open champion is one of the most active players on the WTA social media scene. She has 3.8 million followers on Instagram and 1.3 million on TikTok, where she shares photos and videos of both her days as a tennis player and her time off the court. Recently, she drew attention with a photo of her ‘dream double date,’ where she and her boyfriend, Georgio Frangulis, went on a double date with 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and his wife, Jelena Djokovic.

Sabalenka stated that she views social media as a way to show who she really is and prevent people from focusing exclusively on her on-court attitude. “I feel like I’m like an open book right now,” she added. “Sometimes they ask me, what is something that people will be surprised to know about you? And I’m like, they know everything, like literally everything about me!”

“I show everything. And, the main reason was that, you know, I look really aggressive on court, and I cannot look at myself, watch myself playing. I feel terrible about myself because I’m super aggressive. I wanted to be connected with people. I wanted to feel support in the stadiums. I wanted to experience that support, so I felt like I need to share myself. I need to show people who, who Aryna is and everything came from there, and that’s why I started to share myself to just to make sure that I can stay connected with people.”

The World No. 1 awaits her debut at the Wuhan Open on Thursday, October 9th, where she will face the winner between Slovakian Rebecca Šramková and Russian Anna Kalinskaya. Sabalenka currently holds a perfect 17-0 record in Wuhan and is the champion of the last three editions.