'It's Not Funny': Aryna Sabalenka Slammed For How She Treats Her Team
NewsWednesday, 23 April 2025 at 19:30
Serena Williams' former coach, Rennae Stubbs, is fed up with the comments Aryna Sabalenka directs towards her team when she loses finals and wants the Belarusian to take a different approach.
Sabalenka lost her third final of 2025 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. Jelena Ostapenko, who also beat Iga Swiatek at the tournament, produced an outstanding display to defeat her in straight sets.
It was Sabalenka's fourth consecutive loss in the Stuttgart final. The WTA world No. 1 has spoken openly about how much she wants to win the Porsche car awarded to the winners, making falling at the final hurdle again a bitter pill to swallow.
Despite Sabalenka's disappointment, she continued a tradition of jokingly telling her team they had done a terrible job during the trophy ceremony and blaming them for her inability to win the title.
Sabalenka also did this after losing the 2025 Australian Open and 2025 Indian Wells Open finals to Madison Keys and Mirra Andreeva, and it seems likely she will continue to do so in the future, having set a trend.
However, Stubbs does not like Sabalenka's antics in trophy ceremonies. In an episode of her podcast, the Australian said she would prefer the three-time Grand Slam champion to drop the sarcasm and thank her team.
"One thing I am getting a little bit tired of with Aryna, and listen we all love the histrionics and the crazy in the speeches, but I am really tired of her going after her team when she loses with sarcasm."
"I’m over it. When she loses it’s just like at this point, alright, stop telling your team hey guys great job today every time. It has gotten stale. So we have got to up that. Got to thank your team or not, and stop giving them s***. Because it’s so passive aggressive and a little annoying. And then she tries to laugh and it’s like it’s not funny."
Some may think the issue is not important and that Stubbs should focus on other topics. Sabalenka clearly does not make the comments seriously, and her team members do not seem to mind when she directs sarcastic remarks at them.
The criticism given by Sabalenka is definitely not genuine since she is known to be very close to her team and has previously stated that she expects to work with them for her entire career, unlike most players who make changes every few years.
Anton Dubrov, who has coached Sabalenka since 2020, offered to resign in February 2022 due to repeated issues with her serve. However, Sabalenka convinced him to stay, demonstrating her high regard for him.
Some fans might be a little bored by the joking remarks by Sabalenka in the trophy ceremony and think it has, to use Stubbs' words, "gotten stale." But it is not a significant issue or one that causes any harm.
Sabalenka's runner-up finish at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix was still good enough for her to extend her lead at No. 1 in the rankings, and Iga Swiatek could fall lower than No. 2 in the coming weeks because she has so many points to defend from last year.
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