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The Telegraph
Aryna Sabalenka: I should have stopped tennis after ex-boyfriend’s death
uche amako
Thu, Aug 22, 2024·2 min read
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Aryna Sabalenka speaking at a press conference at the Cincinnati Open
Aryna Sabalenka has admitted she should not have played on at the Miami Open – Getty Images/Robert Prange
Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 2, has revealed her mental health was “damaged” in the aftermath of her ex-boyfriend’s death in March.
Konstantin Koltsov, a former international ice hockey player, died on March 18 in Florida in what was described by Miami-Dade police as “an apparent suicide” at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort.
Sabalenka and Koltsov first got together in June 2021 but had split at the time of his death. Despite the tragic news, the Belarusian opted to play in the Miami Open but lost in the third round to Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, smashed her racket three times in frustration and cancelled all her press conferences.
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, the 26-year-old admitted she should have stopped playing and allowed herself to “step back, reset and recharge”.
“Once, I lost my father and tennis helped me to go through that tough loss,” she said. “So at that moment [of Koltsov’s death] I thought I had to just keep going, keep playing, keep doing my thing to separate my personal life from my career life.
“But at the end I would say I was struggling a lot health-wise because I didn’t stop. It was really emotional and really stressful, and kind of damaged my mental health at that point.
