Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka has already won three trophies in a row and in total does not know defeats already in 15 matches. The winning streak began last year at the competition in Ostrava, then there was a victory at the competition in Linz. January 2021 turned out to be lucky for Aryna Sabalenka as she won her first title of the season and 470 ranking points in Abu Dhabi which will move her up to #7 in the WTA rankings.
What was the reason for such success?
Certainly the good work of the coach and the talent of Sabalenka herself.
Aryna Sabalenka’s current coach is Anton Dubrov
Sabalenka has been working with Anton Dubrov for a long time. At first, he was just her sparring partner, but in early fall 2020, Arina decided to appoint him as her coach.
“I made the decision, then, to work with Anton as a coach, and I think we’re doing well. I want to keep working with just him because I feel much better when I’m with someone who knows me well, and I don’t have to overthink. It really affected my focus because I ended up expending energy on other things that there wasn’t enough left over for my matches.”
Anton Dubrov’s coaching career
Anton Dubrov is the grandson of the famous coach Eduard Dubrov. Dubrov Jr. did not reach the heights in the big tennis (his highest ranking was 1935 in the ATP, November 2014) and went to work in women’s tennis. At first he worked as a sparring partner, then he managed to get a coaching license.
Together with Aryna Sabalenka won three titles:
- Ostrava 2020.
- Linz 2020
- Abu Dhabi 2021
Aryna Sabalenka’s past coaches
Collaboration with Dieter Kindlmann
Before the US Open 2020 Aryna started cooperating with the German Dieter Kindlmann, but they managed to stay together for only three weeks.
Working with Dieter was difficult, mentally, for me, because it took him time to get to know me. He had thoughts about my game and how I have to work, which were different from my thoughts.
Sabalenka
Collaboration with Dmitry Tursunov
Dmitry Tursunov began coaching Aryna Sabalenka in June 2018, when she was the 46th-ranked player in the world. Under Tursunov’s guidance, Sobolenko played her first career WTA Premiership final – just in June 2018 in Eastbourne – and later won five singles titles: in New Haven and Wuhan in 2018, in Shenzhen, Wuhan and Zhuhai in 2019. In addition, Arina made her debut in the top 10 during this period. In January 2020, Aryna Sabalenka and Russian coach Dmitry Tursunov ended their collaboration
It’s important for me that I was able to have success without Dmitry, because we worked together for such a long time, and I started winning with him. It was tough to make the decision to split because in the beginning, I was questioning myself and whether it was the right thing.
Sabalenka
