World number 2 Aryna Sabalenka has revealed that her mental health was “damaged” after The death of her ex-boyfriend in March.
Konstantin Koltsov, a former international ice hockey player, died on March 18 in Florida in what Miami-Dade police described as “an apparent suicide” at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort.
Sabalenka and Koltsov first met in June 2021, but had separated at the time of his deathDespite the tragic news, the Belarusian decided to play the Miami Open but lost in the third round to Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina. He broke his racket three times in frustration. and cancelled all his press conferences.
Speaking in an interview with the guardianThe 26-year-old admitted she should have stopped playing and allowed herself to “take a step back, reset and recharge.”
“I once lost my father and tennis helped me overcome that tough loss,” she said. “So at that time (of Koltsov’s death) I thought I had to move on, keep playing, keep doing my thing to separate my personal life from my professional life.
“But in the end I would say I had a lot of health problems because I didn’t stop. It was very emotional and stressful, and at the time it damaged my mental health.
“Looking back now, I would probably say that a better decision would have been to take a step back, reset, recharge and start all over again.”
After missing Wimbledon with a shoulder injury and opting to skip the Paris Olympics to prepare for the North American summer hard-court swing, Sabalenka comes into the US Open full of confidence following her victory at the Cincinnati Open on Monday.
However, her victory over Jessica Pegula was overshadowed by a gender pay dispute: men’s champion Jannik Sinner took home £801,668 while Sabalenka earned just under half that amount.
With ATP and WTA events being played at the same venue, at the same time and both being best-of-three-set matches, Sabalenka criticised the financial disparity and called for equal prize money in tennis.
“From a television point of view, from ticket sales, from every point of view, it is unfair,” Sabalenka said. “Of course, men will always be physically stronger than women, but that doesn’t mean we don’t work as hard as women. Women deserve to be paid the same amount of money as men.”