‘More tennis and less phone please!’: Aryna Sabalenka under fire from her own fans for swimwear-clad cover shoots and YouTube channel launch as she risks losing world No 1 ranking
Aryna Sabalenka has come under fire from her fans for appearing to have shifted her focus away from tennis – just as the world No1 endures a difficult patch on the court with her ranking threatened.
The US Open champion has endured a challenging mid-season on the heels of pulling off a peerless ‘Sunshine Double’ with Spring wins at Indian Wells and the Miami Open.
The Belarusian star found herself frustrated at both the French Open and Wimbledon in the quarter-finals and round-of-16 respectively, and then failed to make it past the third round in Montreal at the Canadian Open earlier this month.
In the thick of a slight drop-off in form however, fans have been quick to note that her talent for social media posting has experienced no such dip, with Sabalenka continuing to share snapshots from her life on tour and summer holiday in Greece, as well as content for sponsors such as Gucci and high-end jewellery brand Material Good and a photoshoot for the cover of TIME magazine.
Sabalenka has long been a much-watched TikTok user, and keen to take part in the platform’s viral dance crazes, and over the past two seasons has also experimented with longer-form content with her Aryna’s Arena vlog on YouTube.
Aryna Sabalenka has been criticised by supporters for appearing to focus too much on her social media persona
During a challenging stretch of the season, Sabalenka has continued sharing episodes of her vlog Aryna’s Arena (left) and behind-the-scenes content from her TIME magazine shoot
But sharing a promo for a recent episode cataloguing her holiday in Mykonos, Sabalenka caught heat from supporters calling on her to readjust her focus.
‘Please more tennis and less phone,’ one commenter wrote, with another suggesting there were ‘a lot of photos, little tennis’.
A third suggested that she had ‘too many distractions with the jewelry and all that… focus on sport or give it up’.
One troll added that she should ‘leave the sport and go (to do) TikTok dances’.
While somewhat risible that critics online could deem a season where a player has reached the final of the Australian Open and won back-to-back WTA1000 events worthy of retirement, Sabalenka does have a rival snapping at her heels in the rankings.
Elena Rybakina – who beat Sabalenka in Melbourne this year – is just 345 points behind the 28-year-old, after having risen to world No2 status in March.
The Kazakh last week made the final in Montreal, where she lost to Iga Swiatek, but should she win in Cincinnati, Rybakina could yet depose Sabalenka.
One positive for Sabalenka is that she has fewer points to defend in Ohio, having accrued 215 points when she reached the quarter-final last year.
After reaching the semi-final in 2025, Rybakina has 390 points to defend – but has already booked her spot in the fourth round after beating Magdalena Frech on Monday.
Trolls and supporters alike flooded Sabalenka’s comments to give their verdict on her output
Some were aggrieved by Sabalenka’s decision to promote her jewelry partnership with US brand Material Good
Sabalenka will hope to join her there on Tuesday when she meets Wang Xinyu, but suffered a brief scare in her opener as it took her six match points to make it past Talia Gibson 6-2, 7-6(2).
Ahead of the start of the tournament, Sabalenka admitted that her status meant that she had a target on her back for tour rivals, but stressed that this was not limited to her No1 ranking.
‘You can look at this like you’re defending something, but to be honest, you have the target on your back,’ Sabalenka said when asked about Rybakina’s ability to overleap her if she wins the title.
‘Everyone wants to beat you, but I feel it’s the same if you’re No. 1, No. 2, No. 10. It doesn’t really matter what’s the ranking anyway when you go out there on the court, everyone wants to beat you.
‘I love having the target on my back. I like to see the young generation looking up to me and get inspired by me, but I also feel they will get inspired if I drop in the ranking a little bit.
‘Hopefully it will never happen. As long as I focus on developing myself as a player and a person, ranking doesn’t really matter.’
Even if Rybakina does not make the final next week, her threat to Sabalenka’s position could yet carry into the US Open, where her rival is the defending champion.
Should the Belarusian be unable to keep her crown in New York, Rybakina might be in a position to claim the No1 spot with an improvement on her round-of-16 finish last year.
Elena Rybakina has numerous chances Stateside to topple Sabalenka’s dominant 96-week run at world No1
For those concerned that her dip in form was a result of her presence online, Sabalenka corrected the record while speaking to TIME.
Instead, she revealed, taking part in TikTok dances and sharing snippets online has a positive impact on her mental health.
‘You just forget about everything,’ she revealed. ‘You try to dance, try to move your body, so for just that 30, 40 minutes, sometimes an hour, it’s just being focused on one thing and not thinking about other stuff. It’s just like a small getaway.’
Of her critics, she added: ‘Sometimes I go to their profile and see how perfect they ar.
‘And I’m like, “Dude, just figure out your own s*** before you jump into others’ lives.”‘