Former world No. 1 Dinara Safina reveals Aryna Sabalenka reached out to her in 2019 about the possibility of them forming a partnership but ultimately nothing happened.
In late 2019 August, the Belarusian tennis star announced she was parting ways with coach Dmitry Tursunov – who helped her take her game to another level and become an established WTA player. Shortly after the split, Sabalenka was looking for an instant replacement and one of the candidates she had on her list was Safina.
After giving a call to the former three-time Grand Slam finalist, the Russian tennis legend was pretty much told that there was no time to waste and a collaboration would need to be reached quickly. While the 38-year-old didn’t accept the offer, she fully understood the current world No. 1.
Safina, who was just 25 when she played her last match in 2011, was asked by Championat if it was true that Sabalenka wanted her as a coach and also if it was supposed to be something short-term.
“No, about full-fledged cooperation. We talked about Aryna in 2019, right before the US Open. She had just finished working with Dmitry Tursunov. And her agent called me and said that there was such an option, but she had to fly out immediately and start preparing for the US Open. I said that I couldn’t do…
