Aryna Sabalenka’s Coach Reveals Why She Couldn’t Celebrate Her Indian Wells Win

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Elena Rybakina to win her first Indian Wells singles title.

Aryna Sabalenka’s Coach Reveals Why She Couldn’t Celebrate Her Indian Wells Win

Aryna Sabalenka (Image via WTA/X)

In Short
  • Aryna Sabalenka did not celebrate her Indian Wells victory due to a tight schedule with the Miami Open starting the next day.
  • Her coach revealed that the team's celebration was low-key, involving just snacks and a few drinks.
  • Sabalenka aims to defend her Miami title and complete the Sunshine Doubles, a feat achieved by only four women in the Open Era.

Tennis players don’t often find time to celebrate big wins due to the packed schedule. Aryna Sabalenka‘s case is no different. Following her three-set battle over Elena Rybakina in the Indian Wells final, Sabalenka didn’t have much time to celebrate her victory because the day after the conclusion of the event marked the start of the main draw of the Miami event.

The Miami Open is underway at the Hard Rock Stadium, and Sabalenka will be bidding to not just complete the Sunshine Doubles but also defend her title. Her coach, Jason Stacy, sat for an interview with The Big T Podcast and revealed how everyone celebrated.

Pretty much just chilling. There wasn’t much happening. Yeah. We just have a few snacks. It wasn’t that exciting. I was going to say embellish the story. I mean, it was crazy. It was like, man, it was like the plane was losing control cuz we were just jumping and dancing so much. Espresso martinis are flying all over the place.

Before her revenge win, Sabalenka had lost back-to-back matches at the hands of Rybakina. She now holds a 9-7 head-to-head edge over the Kazakh ace.

Yeah, I mean look obviously you know how it is in our world sometimes you don’t have a lot of time in between to celebrate, you know, we try to make sure we have those moments to enjoy it and acknowledge, be like, okay, you know, it was great but I mean in reality we rushed from this stadium to the house, got our bags, raced to the airport and they had our adventure getting back on.

Jason Stacy added

In Miami, Sabalenka will play Ann Li in her opening round. In last year’s Miami final, she defeated Jessica Pegula to win her career’s first Sunshine Doubles singles title.

Sam Querrey thinks Indian Wells win could be a big breakthrough in Aryna Sabalenka’s career

Even though Sabalenka has been enjoying a good form since the 2025 season, she sometimes struggled where it mattered the most. Last year, she played the finals of the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open.

Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka (Image via X/HQ Pics)

The World No.1 lost to Madison Keys in Melbourne and to Coco Gauff in Paris. But at the US Open, she defended her crown against Amanda Anisimova.

After losing two more Big Titles (2025 WTA Finals and this year’s Australian Open), the four-time Grand Slam champion came from a set down and also saved one match point in the Indian Wells final against Rybakina.

While discussing the Indian Wells final on the Nothing Major podcast, Sam Querrey said the win could help Sabalenka’s confidence in the finals of big events.

Right, look, she’s been the most consistent player of the last, I don’t know, 18 months, and she’s number one in the world, but there have been a few hiccups right, in finals. So I think for her to get over the hump here, especially in the way she did it. Being up a break, serving for the match, not serving it out, and then coming back and getting it in a tiebreak…that’s massive for Aryna.

Sabalenka has so far won 10 WTA 1000 titles. If she defends her Miami title, she will become only the fifth woman in the Open Era to complete the Sunshine Doubles and the first one after Iga Swiatek (2022).

Even though Rybakina has reached her career-best No.2 ranking after removing Swiatek, she is seeded third in Miami. She will only face the four-time Grand Slam singles champion if they both progress to the semifinals. Rybakina is a two-time finalist in Miami (2023 and 2024). She suffered an opening-round exit last year.

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