Aryna Sabalenka’s coach shares revealing story about her biggest fear: ‘She was genuinely terrified’
Aryna Sabalenka’s long-standing coach, Jason Stacy, has revealed that the four-time Grand Slam champion has a fear of “losing everything.”
Stacy has been Sabalenka‘s performance coach since 2019 and he is responsible for the Belarusian star’s mental and physical fitness and performance.
In 2025, Sabalenka clinched her second consecutive WTA year-end No 1 ranking after posting a 63-12 (84%) record in an excellent season.
The standout moment for Sabalenka this year came in September when she claimed her second US Open crown, while she also won titles in Brisbane, Miami and Madrid. She was a runner-up at five other events, including the Australian Open, French Open and WTA Finals.
The world No 1 has won 21 WTA Tour singles titles from the 40 finals she has reached in her glittering career to date.
In an interview on The Line with Dr Kristen Holmes, Stacy revealed the “biggest obstacle” Sabalenka has had to overcome during the time he has worked with her.
“I realised from the start that she’s very, very… not trusting, very closed off,” Stacy said.
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“Part of it’s her personality, part of it’s the culture she was raised in, where you don’t trust anybody, you don’t speak about your goals, you don’t talk about things because if you talk about something, it’s gonna get taken away from you. If you build something, you’re gonna lose it.
“So this is the mentality you’re grown with, you’re raised with, some if it’s culture, some of it’s how she was raised, some of it’s her own personality. But she has this, even to this day, that’s one of her biggest fears of just losing everything.
“After Covid, where we first went back to the US Open, there was this moment where she just was like, she was genuinely terrified that she was gonna not know how to play tennis ever again. Like, she was done.
“Imagine that, you’re like, ‘What, you’re telling us this now.’ But you can see, it’s a real thing inside of her. And she’s obviously worked through that and managed it, but there’s still this part of her.
“So the biggest obstacle really was her understanding that for us to progress, for her to grow and to mature and to become what she wants to become — she has to open up a little bit. Even if it’s just a tiny little crack. Open that door just a tiny bit, be a little bit more vulnerable.
“And it wasn’t even coachable, she’ll do whatever we say. But it was just her allowing herself to face those deeper fears that we all have.”
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