Aryna Sabalenka adds Max Mirnyi to coaching team for Cincinnati and U.S. Opens
Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1, has added Max Mirnyi to her coaching team for the remainder of the North American hard-court swing.
Mirnyi — a 10-time doubles Grand Slam champion and fellow Belarusian — joins as a consultant, supporting long-standing head coach Anton Dubrov, performance coach Jason Stacy and the rest of the team, which remains unchanged.
Sabalenka is clear at the top of the WTA rankings, leading world No. 2 Coco Gauff by almost 5,000 points, but she has not won a Grand Slam title since last year’s United States Open. She lost to Madison Keys and Gauff respectively in this year’s Australian and French Open finals, before losing to Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Sabalenka has known Mirnyi, 48, for many years and he had been on court with her during her most recent training block in an informal capacity. At the end of it, she asked if he would join as a consultant for the Cincinnati Open and the U.S. Open; she is defending champion at both events. Mirnyi, a huge server and excellent volleyer, reached the No. 1 ranking in doubles and No. 18 in singles before retiring in 2018. He won ten Grand Slam doubles titles overall. Five years after retiring, he underwent surgery for a malignant brain tumour.
A representative for Sabalenka did not specify the areas on which Mirnyi will focus.
Sabalenka will be the favorite to retain her title at the U.S Open, where the singles draw begins on August 24, and is the player to beat in Ohio too. But despite winning three titles this year, she has also lost four finals, and has looked tense in difficult moments. At Roland Garros, Sabalenka produced an error-strewn performance and Gauff took advantage.
Sabalenka skipped the Canadian Open, saying in a media roundtable in Ohio this week that she had been feeling “exhausted” since the French Open and didn’t want to risk injury by overplaying — as happened last year when she was forced to miss Wimbledon because of a shoulder problem.
Her Cincinnati Open begins this weekend with a second-round match against former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women's Tennis
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