'A dream come true': Go inside Sabalenka's 'Vogue' cover story
Aryna Sabalenka plays big -- and feels big, too. But as the World No. 1 and those closest to her recently described for the May digital cover story in Vogue magazine, channeling those emotions is what has brought her to the top of the WTA Tour Driven be Mercedes-Benz.
“When I was young, I would get emotional, and then I would get really pissed with myself for getting emotional,” Sabalenka tells writer Rob Haskell. “Now I understand that it’s okay to throw the racquet. It’s okay to yell something. It’s okay to go nuts if you feel like you’re holding too much in.
“Sometimes you just need to let it go, to empty it so you’re ready to start over and play the match. Sometimes it looks ugly and terrible, but I need it in order to keep my head in it.”
Her fitness trainer Jason Stacy says grounding herself in this self-awareness has been transformative for Sabalenka.
"It’s the progression from fighter to warrior," he says. "She was that young fighter, running off adrenaline, surviving the moment. Warriors are calmer. They can zoom out and then zoom back in and refocus on the right thing.”
But she still admits to being a work in progress. Styled in looks from luxury fashion house Gucci, for which she became a brand ambassador in January, as well as a coat from Tory Burch and her signature Audemars Piguet watch, Sabalenka discusses how one emotion -- confidence -- has become central to both her tennis and public life, and how others -- "winning, losing, grieving, learning, and never letting up," according to Vogue -- have also been at the forefront.
She has suffered close personal losses, including her father Sergey, who introduced her to the game, in 2019 before she became a major champion -- “People say that time helps, but in some ways I struggle more now because I know how much fun my dad would be having with my success,” she says -- and has had to grapple with her response to high-profile on-court defeats.
The interview, for example, took place a day after her surprise third-round defeat to Sorana Cirstea at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, which was her earliest loss at a tournament in more the a year, and she spends time discussing the viral aftermath of her 2025 Roland Garros final loss to Coco Gauff.
"I feel like all of us think, 'OK, I should win every match. If you’re not thinking that way, then what are you doing?" she says. "When you’re in the top five and you’re winning Grand Slams, it’s not OK to be OK with losing. That’s my mentality.”
“This is part of my personality that can drive me crazy, but it can also drive me into that real fight mode and help me play with passion,” she adds. “It’s two sides of the medal.”