Aryna Sabalenka has suffered some difficult losses in 2026 and she has come under fire from many critics for failing to deal with her emotions.
The World No. 1 has claimed the Sunshine Double already this year, but she has come undone at the latter stages of both of the Grand Slams so far.
She was beaten in the final of the Australian Open by Elena Rybakina and in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros by Diana Shnaider.
In an exclusive interview with Tennis365, Sabalenka’s performance coach, Jason Stacy, explained how the World No. 1 deals with critics calling her too emotional.
“The mantra that we have is: ‘Don’t fight it, don’t feed it.’ So we take every moment or opportunity or obstacle in front of us and give it what it needs, not the story that’s going on, or we don’t try to suppress it,” he said.
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“We just accept what’s in front of us, figure out what we can control, then take steps to manage those as best as we can. I would say now, here, obviously I’m hearing a lot about her emotions, and she’s losing this and that, and control.
“Take a little sidestep for a second, and just understand that for a long time, and especially the last few years, she’d been one of the most consistent dominant players on the Tour. Period.”
Stacy believes there’s a general conception around Sabalenka at present, as he thinks she is still performing at a very high level on the WTA Tour.
“When she has lost, it’s typically in a final of a slam or a final of a major, so it’s not like she’s losing early and has no control. She’s faced many obstacles and managed her emotions much better,” he said.
“And then, yes, there’s been a couple losses that we’ve had. It’s not so much the loss, it’s how she lost,That’s what we’re working on. And it’s remembering a couple of things.
“First and foremost, she’s a human, she’s a person, she’s not a robot, so maintaining that level of control and composure, and even level of competitiveness. Nobody does that all the time, right? And the difference with Aryna is that whatever she’s feeling, as you see, even in interviews and press conferences, you see whatever mood she’s in in that moment, she just leaves it all on the table.
“She’s not someone that kind of hides or pretends. It’s like, ‘Hey, this is what I think. I’m going to say what I’m thinking right now.’ Right now, I would wrap all of that into the fact that the reason she’s been doing so well for so many years, and the last few, even a whole other level, is because of all that emotion.”
Stacy thinks Sabalenka’s authoritative nature can be used positively rather than negatively as many of her critics suggest.
He added: “It’s because of who she is. It’s all that fire inside of her, and what we’ve been doing for years now is slowly helping her mature and understand how to manage those. How to understand how she processes emotions and how to express those things, and when the right time to let it out, when to catch yourself early to pause and take a breath and reset.
“She has a lot more tools than she used to, right, but it still sometimes happens, and if that thing catches her off guard, that same fire and power that she has, that usually helps her dominate, can, if it starts to take the steering wheel, sometimes it takes over, and it’s happened a few times where she was able to bring it back, right, and it’s been a couple of times that she wasn’t, and she at this point is so much more aware of those things that when she realises what’s happening and she’s not able to get that kind of rhythm back.
“It’s more frustrating, it’s more overwhelming, and then when you’re not managing emotions, and then the environment starts to change. When you have all these other variables, it doesn’t give you the space to reset sometimes that you might need. So, I think it’s just this isn’t anything new, and it’s not afraid. It’s the same for everybody.”
Sabalenka was recently defeated by Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals of the Berlin Open. She will next head to Wimbledon, where she looks to win her very first title on the grass.
