aryna sabalenka Biography: Early Life, Career, Stats, Titles, Boyfriend & Net Worth
Aryna Sabalenka (born May 5, 1998 in Minsk, Belarus) is a Belarusian professional tennis player who rose to prominence as one of the top young athletes on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour in the early 2020s.
She rose to the top of the WTA singles rankings in 2023, due to her aggressive, risk-taking approach and powerful forehand and serve. Sabalenka has won major titles at the Australian Open (2023 and 2024) and the United States Open (2024 and 2025).
She is a dominant player of her generation, with competitors Iga Świątek of Poland and Coco Gauff of the United States.
Aryna Sabalenka Biography
Sabalenka was born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Her father, Sergey (died 2019), was an ice hockey player. Sabalenka began playing tennis by happenstance. She began training at the National Tennis Academy in Minsk when it was established in 2014.
Sabalenka and her entourage were persuaded by the Belarusian Tennis Federation in 2015 to focus on playing low-level professional events rather than junior tournaments, despite her still being eligible for junior competition.
She attended Belarusian State University for a sports-related program. Growing up, her tennis idols included Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Her father, Sergey, a former ice hockey player, died unexpectedly in 2019 at the age of 43. He had meningitis.
Career
Aryna Sabalenka, the daughter of Yuliya Sabalenka and former professional ice hockey player Sergey Sabalenka, was raised in Minsk. She later regarded her father as her greatest inspiration, claiming that he took her to tennis on a whim: when she was six years old, he saw a neighbourhood court while driving by and decided they should give it a try.
Tennis quickly became Sabalenka’s all-consuming passion after that auspicious beginning.
Sabalenka trained and competed in Minsk, and although being a promising young player, unlike many future professionals, she did not participate in any junior Grand Slams or other high-profile international competitions. She begancompetingd on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tour in 2012.
She won her first three ITF championships in 2015, allowing her to compete as a qualifier at a WTA tournament in Rabat, Morocco, the next year.
Sabalenka competed in her maiden major tournament main draw match at Wimbledon in July 2017. In October, she advanced to the final in Tianjin, China, where she lost to Maria Sharapova.
The following month, Sabalenka represented Belarus in the international team Fed Cup (now the Billie Jean King Cup), where Belarus advanced to the final round before losing to the United States team. Sabalenka, who is still relatively unknown, impressed observers with her performance and earned her maiden victory over a top-20 player, Sloane Stephens.
Later that month, she won her maiden WTA event, the Mumbai Open, and concluded the season ranked 78th on the WTA Tour.
Sabalenka continued to grow in 2018, winning titles in New Haven, Connecticut, and Wuhan, China, as well as reaching the round of 16 at the United States Open, where she lost to Japanese player Naomi Osaka.
She finished the year ranked 11th in the world and was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year. Sabalenka won three singles championships in 2019—all in China—and completed the year ranked 11th in the WTA. She was much more successful in doubles with her partner, Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
They won titles in Indian Wells, California, and Miami before winning the U.S. Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam win came in the form of the Open doubles trophy. Her doubles rating rose to second place, and she established herself as a rising star on both sides of the game.
However, the year ended on a melancholy note, as Sabalenka’s father died unexpectedly from meningitis in November 2019 at the age of 43. The loss was traumatic for Sabalenka, who was 21 at the time. Sabalenka defeated Mertens in the singles final in Linz, Austria, in 2020, one of three titles she won during a season cut short by the COVID-19 epidemic.
She finished among the top ten that year. In 2021, she developed further, winning titles in Abu Dhabi and Madrid, as well as reaching the Wimbledon and US Open semifinals. She also won another major doubles title with Mertens at the 2021 Australian Open, propelling her to the top of the doubles rankings.
Although Sabalenka entered 2022 rated second in singles behind Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, the season proved difficult. Sabalenka, who is 5 feet 11 inches (1.82 meters), was noted for her daring style of play, which depended on a strong serve and hard-hitting forehands and backhands from the baseline.
This resulted in a huge number of winners and unforced errors, but she had typically hit the right balance. However, Sabalenka struggled with her serve in 2022, recording a whopping 428 double faults—more than any other WTA player by a large margin—and failing to win a single title.
To remedy the issue, her team hired a biomechanics expert, and Sabalenka began the difficult task of recreating her service motion from the ground up. She also decided to focus on singles and stopped competing in doubles.
That dedication paid off early the next season, when Sabalenka won her maiden Grand Slam singles championship at the Australian Open, defeating Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in a dramatic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 match.
Later that year, she advanced to the Grand Slam final at the United States Open, where she was defeated by rising American sensation Gauff. Following the competition, she surpassed Świątek to become number one in the rankings for the first time.
In addition to her Grand Slam victory, she won titles at Adelaide, Australia, and Madrid. Sabalenka won the Australian Open again in 2024. She played Chinese sensation Zheng Qinwen in the final, which she easily won 6-3, 6-2.
She also won titles in Cincinnati and Wuhan, and she concluded the year as the top-ranked athlete for the first time.
Sabalenka was defeated in the final of the Australian Open by American Madison Keys, 3-6, 6-2, 5-7, in January 2025, preventing her from becoming the first woman to win three straight Australian Open titles since Martina Hingis did it in 1999.
She lost another close major final in June, this time at the French Open, to Gauff, 7-6, 2-6, 4-6. The following month, Sabalenka was beaten in the Wimbledon semifinals by 13th-seeded American Amanda Anisimova.
The two players faced again in the finals of the 2025 US Open, and Sabalenka won 6-3, 7-5.
Aryna Sabalenka Husband
Konstantin Koltsov, Sabalenka’s partner since 2021, died of an apparent suicide in March 2024 at the age of 42. Sabalenka later revealed that the couple had split at the time of his death. She’s been in a relationship with Georgios Frangulis since 2024.
Aryna Sabalenka Net Worth
Her worth is believed to range between $18.7 million and $22 million. According to CelebrityNetWorth.com and other reports, her net worth is $22 million as of September 2025, whereas Forbes puts it at $18.7 million.
Social Media
Instagram: @arynasabalenka
