Sabalenka: her coach reveals the hidden fear that haunted her after the pandemic

Aryna Sabalenka's fitness coach opened up about the months following the pandemic. Behind the player's power and charisma, he describes a woman consumed by the fear of seeing everything collapse, even doubting her own tennis.

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Clément Gehl

le 05/12/2025 à 08h32

1 min to read

Sabalenka

Jason Stacy, Aryna Sabalenka's fitness coach, gave an interview to the media outlet The Line. He notably discussed the post-COVID pandemic period, where he revealed his player's anxiety at that time.

"I immediately understood that she was very, very... mistrustful, very closed off. This is partly due to her personality, partly to the culture in which she grew up, where you trust no one, where you don't talk about your goals, where you don't talk about anything because if you talk about it, you risk having it stolen.

Everything you build ends up being lost. So that's the mentality with which she grew up, with which she was raised; it's partly cultural, partly related to her upbringing, partly to her own personality. But she has this fear, even today, of losing everything.

After the pandemic, during our return to the US Open, there was a moment when she was truly terrified at the thought of never knowing how to play tennis again. She was devastated.

But you can see that it's something very real within her. And she has obviously overcome that and managed to handle it, but that part of herself persists."