Aryna Sabalenka faces this Tuesday, June 6 in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros Elina Svitolina. This tennis match will also be scrutinized geopolitically because of the war in Ukraine.
This Tuesday, June 6, Aryna Sabalenka will play her first singles quarter-final at the French Open against Elina Svitolina. This meeting is scheduled in the second rotation on the Philippe-Chatrier court. The Ukrainian is coming back very well and playing very good tennis despite being pregnant a year ago. Aryna Sabalenka will have to be wary of Svitolina who was previously world No. 3. She has Grand Slam experience and has already reached the quarter-finals three times at Roland-Garros. For her fourth, she will also be encouraged and supported by the Parisian public, in particular because she is the wife of Gaël Monfils. But the spectators are also sensitive to the convictions of the Ukrainian. She refuses to shake hands with all the Russian and Belarusian players on the circuit because of the war in Ukraine which has now lasted for more than a year.
And so far, Aryna Sabalenka who is Belarusian, has been rather evasive on the subject. Requested since the beginning of the fortnight concerning the current conflict, the world number 2 has decided to oust and ignore the press conferences. A journalist had challenged him a few days ago: “In 2020, you signed a letter to support Lukashenko when he was torturing and beating protesters in the street. Then you celebrated the New Year with him. How a potential world number 1 support a dictator? Aryna Sabalenka brushed off the question, saying she “didn’t have any comments to make”.
Normally, a player must comply with the exercise of the press conference. For the moment, Amélie Mauresmo has accepted that Aryna Sabalenka, who plays under a neutral banner, does not attend press conferences. She would be, according to the director of the Roland-Garros tournament, “very touched”. She is actually paying for the benevolent messages that the Belarusian leader has for her and those she was able to hold before. “It’s good to be born in a country where the president supports the sport like no one else and is ready to help in difficult times,” she commented in 2020. Since the start of the tournament, however, she repeats nothing to do with politics. I’ve said it many times: no Russian or Belarusian player supports war. How can you support war? Normal people don’t. It’s obvious, like 1 + 1 = 2. If we could put an end to it, we would do it right away“, she justified herself. But the Ukrainian athletes expect strong gestures. Daria Kasatkina, who was eliminated in the round of 16 by Elina Svitolina, for example, has repeatedly expressed her disagreement with the war. He is now forbidden to enter Russian territory.
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Biographical sheet. Aryna Sabalenka was born on May 5, 1998 in Minsk. His father Sergey was an ice hockey coach. But he had encouraged his daughter to hold a racket in her hands when she was 6 years old. He sadly passed away in 2019 at the age of 43. His mother is still alive and is called Yulia. Aryna Sabalenka progressed very quickly with the little yellow ball. She was trained by Dmitry Tursunov and Didi Kindlmann. Today, she collaborates with her compatriot Anton Dubrov. The player is nicknamed “The Tiger” because of her tattoo of the animal on the front of her left arm. Off the courts, she also reads books and her favorite novel is none other than The count of Monte Cristo whose author is Alexandre Dumas.
Aryna Sabalenka is currently second in the world. The Belarusian reached this ranking after winning theAustralian Open on January 30, 2023. In doubles, she has already been at the top of women’s tennis, occupying the first place in the world on February 22, 2021. However, she has fallen back to the 399th place in the world.
Aryna Sabalenka took on a whole new dimension by winning the Australian Open in 2023. She had never passed the round of 16 in this tournament. AT Wimbledonshe played in the semi-finals in 2021. Similar to the US Open where she had reached the last four in 2021 and 2022. In WTA 1000, Premier Mandatory or Premier 5, she has 5 victories on the circuit with Wuhan in 2018 and 2019, Dubai in 2020 and Madrid in 2021 and 2023. She also made a final at the WTA Finals in 2022 in Fort Worth where she lost against Caroline Garcia.
Being born in Minsk, Aryna Sabalenka is of Belarusian nationality.
On the court, Aryna Sabalenka uses her size as an asset. She takes advantage of her 1m82 to have an efficient service and in the game, she plays with power.
Konstantin Koltsov is the boyfriend of the world number 2. He was a top athlete in ice hockey. He notably represented the Belarusian national team.
Before Roland-Garros 2023, Aryna Sabalenka celebrated her 25th birthday. She was born at the beginning of the month (the 5th).