Aryna Sabalenka’s Coach Reveals Mental Anguish She Suffered During French Open Final: “You’re Letting Your Team Down”

Aryna Sabalenka‘s French Open run this year ended in a disappointing fashion. Following the Australian Open final defeat, Sabalenka made back-to-back Grand Slam finals after knocking out four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek in the semifinal.

Sabalenka, while battling the windy conditions, somehow won the first set against Coco Gauff, who eventually prevailed at the end, winning her career’s second Grand Slam singles title as well as her second French Open title (she won the doubles in 2024). Sabalenka and Gauff are now tied at 6-6 in the head-to-head matchups, as after the French Open, they also met in the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals, which Sabalenka won.

Following the heartbreak, the Belarusian ended up making controversial comments, saying Gauff won because Sabalenka couldn’t give her best, and that Swiatek would have clinched the win had she faced the American in the final. Jason Tracy, one of Sabalenka’s coaches, revealed the turmoil the four-time singles Grand Slam champion dealt with during the final. He said on The Line podcast:

She had finals, finals, finals, finals, quarters, Slam. She played so many matches. Yeah. And when she got to the French Open, she showed up, she was sick again two years in a row, right? Got some virus, was really sick, fought through those matches.

Following her Australian Open heartbreak, Sabalenka had disappointing campaigns on the Middle East swing, after which she reached four consecutive finals. She lost at Indian Wells to Mirra Andreeva and defeated Jessica Pegula in the Miami Open.

Sabalenka then failed to beat Jelena Ostapenko at the Stuttgart Open. But she was successful in defeating Gauff in Madrid. At the Italian Open, Qinwen Zheng knocked her out in the quarterfinals.

So by the time she gets to this final with all this stress, all this pressure, and then some things started changing that she had, you know, couldn’t adapt to, and she, you know, you’re just exhausted, you’re depleted, and you have all of this stuff happening. You see that you feel like you’re embarrassing your team, you’re letting your team down because we’ve done everything to make sure you can be in the final.

Jason Tracy added

Sabalenka ended her Grand Slam title drought by defending her US Open crown against home favorite Amanda Anisimova. The win helped her win $5 million- the biggest prize money in the history of Grand Slam events.

Jason Tracy reveals Aryna Sabalenka’s biggest fear

While working with Aryna Sabalenka, Jason Tracy realized that she found it hard to trust anyone. He thinks Sabalenka was afraid of talking about her goals because she was terrified of losing things she had built. But now, she has opened up a bit to be more vulnerable, which, Tracy said, is important for growth.

Part of it’s her personality, part of it’s the culture she was raised in, where you don’t trust anybody, you don’t speak about your goals, you don’t talk about things because if you talk about something, it’s gonna get taken away from you. If you build something, you’re gonna lose it.

Jason Tracy said on The Line podcast

Sabalenka took home four titles from nine finals this year. Apart from the Miami Open, Madrid Open, and the US Open, Sabalenka took home the Brisbane International. She also reached the WTA Finals for the second time in her career, but couldn’t beat Elena Rybakina.

The 27-year-old also finished the season as No.1 for the second consecutive time. Sabalenka will be in action later this month. She will be locking horns with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in the Battle of the Sexes in Dubai on December 28.

Also read: Toni Nadal Reveals Key Difference Between the Eras of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz

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