Aryna Sabalenka is not “just like us.” And not because she’s the top-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, or because she’s an ambassador for Audemars Piguet, or even because she tells me that, if she wasn’t a tennis player, she’d probably be modeling. The 26-year-old Belarusian champion is not like the rest of us because she is simply much more fun.

At least she is when she’s in Miami, where she dials in from one morning during the off-season (her Zoom name is Saby [tiger emoji], in reference to her identification with the animal). Weeks ago, Sabalenka clinched the number one spot in the Women’s Tennis Association for the second time in her career. Three weeks later, she lost to Coco Gauff in Riyadh. Due to a combination of consistency and performance throughout the year, not to mention the complicated tennis ranking minutiae, Sabalenka is ending the season on top for the first time.

“Most of the time I’m losing,” Sabalenka explains matter-of-factly. “Learning how to lose is the hardest lesson. First, you’re not accepting the loss, and you’re acting like a bitch. To learn how to lose and still be a good person and understand that this is just a moment... That’s hard. You know, I’m world number one, but I won four tournaments.” (There is an implied “only” in this explanation.) “[It’s important to] still enjoy life while you’re not having the success you wish you would have on the court.”

For Sabalenka, life off the court sounds pretty great: hanging out on a boat with her friends, spending time on the beach, dancing (her TikToks are legendary), shopping (though not for too long; she gets tired of it), boxing (though not that often; she could get injured), and doing photoshoots for “cool magazines” in order to “change the picture.”

“I think [the picture] is always the same for me—just tennis, basically. You’re always on the court sweating, wearing sports stuff, a ponytail—the same picture of yourself and of your life.” She scrutinizes the Zoom video frame. “Ok, maybe I’ll just go like this...” Sabalenka, who has had her dirty blonde hair up in a ponytail until this point, lets it down in one big motion.

“Gorgeous!” I shout.

 “It’s better, right?” she says. (I have no comment).

 “When you go for photo shoots,” she continues, tucking her front strands behind both ears, “you have makeup, you have your hair done, you try different styles. You see yourself from different perspectives. I love it. You forget about your normal life.”

But Sabalenka’s normal life is still glamorous; make no mistake. 15 years into her career as a professional tennis player, her public image has taken on an almost one-dimensionally intense quality. The word “aggressive” gets thrown around, even by Sabalenka herself, and not just because of her imposing frame, standing tall at 6’0”. She plays the game with unparalleled strength, as if, when that neon ball hits the court, every seat in the stand shakes too. I ask her what her greatest love in life is, and she answers tennis (“Don’t tell my boyfriend.”) When I ask why, she credits the competitiveness.

“I’m so competitive,” she shares. “I am, I mean, aggressive in some ways on the court. It’s quite crazy. You have to be 100% armed, which is really tough to handle, being like that throughout the whole day. When I’m not training, I’m just trying to do things which bring me joy. Sometimes, it’s even a simple thing like going for a good coffee in a good cafe. You just enjoy the place, and you sit there having a coffee, scrolling Instagram, doing something completely stupid. Being off. It’s important.”

One struggles to imagine Sabalenka looking stupid doing anything. With the sun beating down and the palm trees swaying about in Miami, Sabalenka is not, perhaps, 100% armed. Tennis seems a lonely sport, but—with the resolve of a Belarusian Tony Soprano—Sabalenka prioritizes her family and community over anything else. “They’re definitely the ones who motivate me to keep going. There were some times when I wanted to give up, but I was just thinking, I cannot quit. I want them to be proud of me, to bring some positivity into their lives because they get happy when I win. And I want it to be a great example for my sister; she’s 11 years younger. I want her to see a good example [in me] just like I saw in my father.”

Sabalenka’s father Sergey Sabalenka passed away unexpectedly in 2019 from meningitis. A successful Belarusian hockey player, he was the biggest source of encouragement during Sabalenka’s tennis career, something she spoke about at length in Netflix’s tennis documentary series Break Point. In the years following her father’s passing, Sabalenka’s own gameplay took a turn. She would hit serving error after serving error, handing the point over to her competitor: a double fault.

“I don’t know what happened with my mental health, but there was a year when I couldn’t serve. In tennis, if you double fault for the whole match, you cannot get to the level I wanted to be at—win a grand slam. I was struggling for maybe a year and a half. One time, I was like, Okay, I’m done. I just... I cannot,” Sabalenka recalls, throwing back her hands. “In some ways, it was embarrassing. I couldn’t find a solution, and maybe it was just a sign I had to quit.”

Eventually, after hours and hours practicing and speaking with a psychologist, Sabalenka realized that the problem wasn’t internal but biomechanical—a bad reaction to outside forces, where the pressure goes too far, too hard. She works with a biomechanical coach to this day.

Though Sabalenka credits her father with her drive to never give up, she speaks most fondly of his magnetism and cheer. “I think I was seven or nine; I don’t remember the exact age.We had just had a party in the house, and I looked up at him, and he was so funny. So happy. People loved him. I looked to him thinking, ‘I hope when I grow up I’ll have this personality.’ He was always focusing on the positive things rather than the negative.”

Off-court, Sabalenka is pretty cheery, but, like any three-dimensional Achilles-like athlete, she has her moments of solemnity. “I’m really open. But I have to say, when I lost my dad, from time to time, I would go to the church and put a candle for his memory and the memory of my grandfather. It’s something you never show on social media. I’m not gonna be the one in the church filming,” she says, waving her hand around as if taking a video.

When I ask Sabalenka what advice she has for future tennis players, that steely courtside self- assuredness comes back. “Always listen to yourself. I think people who reach the top of their game, they’re hard workers and they sacrifice a lot to their dreams. That’s my lesson: just never listen.”

Sabalenka doesn’t mean never listen. In fact, there’s one person who consistently gets to tell Sabalenka what to do: her sister Tonechka. “She’s 15, and I will never judge her for anything. I have to say, there were times that were really tough for her because I was just trying to make her understand things, and I was stuck on her. But now I think I’m the one who’s just there for fun, for support, and for whatever advice she needs from me.”

Sabalenka thinks of herself as a cool sister. “Whatever she asks me for, I’m always trying to figure out a way to deliver it. I was in Dubai, and she sent me this list. My team was going back home, and I was running around the mall trying to find all these things, and the Dubai mall is huge. She’d be like, ‘Also that! Also that! Also that!’ Like, an endless list. I was exhausted.”

Tonechka lucked out in the end. “I got her this Yves Saint Laurent bag. For a 15-year-old!” Sabalenka laughs. “Like, I wished I would get this present when I was 15.”

When I mention to Sabalenka that that sounds stressful for her, she rushes to her sister’s defense. “No, I love her,” she says seriously. “When she was born, I was the happiest person. I asked my mom for a sister for years and years.”

Sabalenka remains pretty high on the happiness rankings, however. “To get to the level where you dream to be, through sacrifices and through traumas, you look back and you are so grateful. It’s just the best feeling. It gives me the understanding that the whole of my life I’ve been doing the right thing. It wasn’t a waste of time.”

Throughout our conversation, Sabalenka never goes more than a few seconds without smiling. Oh, to be someone doing what they love most. Sabalenka has certainly seen her share of pain, both physical and emotional, but she’s channeling gratitude and the wisdom that provides, and for now, the view is good from the top. 
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Photographed by Brendan Wixted at Print and Contact

Styled by Christopher Campbell

Written by Sarina Benezra Bell

Hair: Dafne Evangelista at Peechy Group

Makeup: Julia Petarca at Peechy Group

Flaunt Film: Avonte Boykins

Location 1: W South Beach

Location 2: The Bass Museum