World No. 1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka is on the cover of May's issue of Vogue magazine, with a lengthy interview in which the 28-year-old Belarusian player reflects on the frustration of losing and the right players have to sometimes show their rage and anger.
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Sabalenka remembers that, at first, she had "zero control", losing matches she dominated because she "went crazy". "That's the tough side of being an athlete: You cannot win everything. Your body will, at some point, stop you, limit you. But it's also the beauty of sport. It's nice, too, when somebody young and up-and-coming beats the world number one. If somebody won everything, it wouldn't exactly be entertaining to watch", she said.
Sabalenka has won four Grand Slams, and has also lost four Grand Slam finals. Her rage outbursts have been well known. "It's okay to throw the racket. It's okay to yell. It's okay to go nuts. Sometimes you just need to let it go...so you're ready to start over and play the match."
"I feel like all of us think, Okay, I should win every match. If you're not thinking that way, then what are you doing? When you're in the top five and you're winning Grand Slams, it's not okay to be okay with losing. That's my mentality", she added.
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Sabalenka on the deaths of her father and ex-boyfriend
Sabalenka also talked about the grieving process after the sudden deaths of her father in 2019 (of meningitis when he was 43 and Aryna was only 21) and the apparent suicide of her former boyfriend Konstantin Koltsov, which happened in Miami, where Sabalenka was training at the time. She remembers that, at first, argued with the cops, refusing to believe Kolstov death.
Sabalenka played the Miami Open days later, losing in third round, and was criticised for playing so soon after the tragedy. "I don't know if there's any cliché about how you're supposed to grieve. I feel like in this situation, there is no right and wrong. We all need different things. For me, going back to work is the only way. I'm 28, but sometimes I think I've had everything in life that you could imagine."
Sabalenka also admitted that her fiancé sometimes find her crying in bed because she had been watching reels. "The most sensitive videos for me are when I see people posting a family reaction to their kid athlete winning something, and I just imagine how my dad would react to me. I'm crying like crazy, like I just lost him. There are so many fathers on tour, and when I see a healthy relationship and a proud dad, I think, Girl, just enjoy it, because you never know what's coming. You're so lucky".