{"id":1139966,"date":"2026-08-09T16:23:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1139966\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T16:23:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:23:24","slug":"how-aryna-sabalenka-went-from-heartbreak-and-loss-in-2024-to-a-vogue-cover-a-gucci-deal-and-a-diamond-engagement-ring-in-2026-international-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1139966\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aryna Sabalenka went from heartbreak and loss in 2024 to a Vogue cover, a Gucci deal and a diamond engagement ring in 2026 | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HowAryna Sabalenka and her success story (Instagram) In March 2024, Aryna Sabalenka was standing on a practice court in Miami when police walked up and told her that Konstantin Koltsov, her former boyfriend, had died. She was at the Miami Open. The tournament was days away. She played anyway. Two years later, she is the world No. 1, a four-time Grand Slam champion, the global brand ambassador for Gucci, the subject of a Vogue cover shoot in Miami Beach, and engaged to a man who proposed with a 12-carat diamond ring. She wanted 14 carats. She’s not letting him forget it.<\/p>\n

The darkest stretch of Aryna Sabalenka’s career, and how she played through it<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka was on the practice courts in Miami ahead of the Miami Open when police approached her with the news that Koltsov had died by apparent suicide at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort. Though they were no longer together at the time, she said her heart was broken. What followed was one of the most difficult decisions she has ever made as an athlete: she stayed in the draw and competed.She thought that keeping going, continuing to play, and separating her personal life from her career — the same approach that helped her survive the loss of her father in 2019 — would work again. It didn’t.Her mental state didn’t improve, and her body started feeling the consequences. She eventually admitted that a shoulder injury kept her from playing Wimbledon, and that she also sat out the 2024 Olympics to give herself time to heal.”Looking back right now, I would say that a better decision would have been to step back, reset and recharge, and start everything over again,” she told The Guardian. “But I did what I did. At the end I paid for my decision, but I’m really glad that I have tennis in my life and it’s really helped me go through whatever and get stronger.”She lost in the third round of the Miami Open to Anhelina Kalinina, smashed her racket three times in frustration, and cancelled all her press conferences. The optics were bad. The criticism came quickly. But what the cameras could not capture was the weight she was carrying off the court.Her team hired a psychologist to support her through the turmoil. When she finally spoke to him, the psychologist asked how she had managed to handle so many dramatic situations in her life. The question itself gave her clarity. “At that moment, I realised, ‘OK, I don’t need the psychologist. I can handle it by myself,'” she said.That’s Sabalenka. Unfiltered, self-aware, and apparently more resilient than most people give her credit for.<\/p>\n

Four Grand Slams and a World No. 1 run that nobody can interrupt<\/p>\n

For all the noise around her personal life, the tennis has been extraordinary. Aryna Sabalenka has won major titles at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024, and the US Open in 2024 and 2025 — four Grand Slam singles titles in total, across three consecutive years. She first reached world No. 1 in 2023, and since then the top spot has essentially been hers to lose.She has spent 83 consecutive weeks as the world No. 1 since October 2024, a streak that puts her comfortably among the most dominant players of the current era. In 2025 alone, she reached nine finals, including three Slam finals, won four titles, and compiled a record of 63 wins against just a handful of losses, going 15-5 against top-10 opponents.The 2025 Australian Open final was the one that got away. At 5-5 in the deciding set against Madison Keys, Sabalenka was on the brink of becoming the first woman since Martina Hingis — 26 years earlier — to win three consecutive singles titles at Melbourne Park. Keys completed a fairytale comeback, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, to end Sabalenka’s 20-match Australian Open winning streak.She lost that match. Then she destroyed Keys 6-0, 6-1 the next time they played.”I needed this revenge badly, so I was really focused, and I think tactically I played really great tennis,” Sabalenka said after that Indian Wells win. The scoreline said everything else.The thing about Sabalenka is that she doesn’t just recover from setbacks — she uses them as fuel. There’s a directness to her game and to her personality that doesn’t leave much room for self-pity. She processes, she regroups, and then she comes back swinging harder than before.<\/p>\n

The Vogue cover, the Gucci deal, and what Aryna Sabalenka said about the internet<\/p>\n

Captured by photographer Steven Klein at the luxury Faena Hotel on Miami Beach, Sabalenka graces the digital cover of American Vogue for May 2026, photographed wearing head-to-toe Gucci.She is the brand’s global ambassador, and the shoot — set against an oceanfront backdrop — drew immediate attention when she posted it on social media.The Vogue feature was not just fashion. It was one of the most candid interviews she has given in years. She talked about her father. She talked about Koltsov. She talked about the 2025 French Open final, which she lost to Coco Gauff. And she talked about what it’s like to be famous on the internet in 2026.”With a lot of love and a lot of attention and a lot of success, there’s always gonna be people who judge you. They judge your look, they judge your grunting, your nationality, even your private life, your choices. I don’t scroll a lot, but sometimes I’ll see random comments on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and I’ll ask my manager, ‘Do people really hate me that much?’ Then I go into the stadium and I feel so much support, and I realize that on the internet, it’s so few people, but it’s so loud.”She also took direct aim at the trolls — particularly those hiding behind anonymous accounts and called out the mothers who sometimes send her threatening messages. “Sometimes you click on the profile, and you see it’s a mother with three kids,” she said. “There’s something wrong with this planet.”She also opened up about her emotional side on court, something she has been criticised for repeatedly throughout her career.”When I was young, I would get emotional, and then I would get really pissed with myself for getting emotional. Now I understand that it’s okay to throw the racket. It’s okay to yell something. It’s okay to go nuts if you feel like you’re holding too much in. Sometimes you just need to let it go, to empty it so you’re ready to start over and play the match.”It’s a remarkably honest position for an athlete who knows the cameras are always on her. And it’s one that — like most things Sabalenka says — is difficult to argue with.<\/p>\n

The Engagement, the ring, and the man who proposed in front of roses and candles<\/p>\n

Georgios Frangulis proposed in early March 2026 in front of an elaborate display of roses and candles, presenting Sabalenka with an oval diamond ring in platinum with a curved band and emerald touches \u2014 her favourite stone and her birthstone. The ring was designed by Isabela Grutman, who worked with Frangulis to customise the piece.Frangulis is a Greek-Brazilian entrepreneur best known for founding Oakberry, a popular acai bowl franchise with over 800 locations across 50 countries. The couple met in early 2024, just weeks after the most painful period of Sabalenka’s life. Sabalenka announced the news on Instagram with the caption, “You & me, forever.”The ring, according to an expert who spoke with Page Six, is estimated to be worth up to $750,000. Sabalenka, for her part, clarified during a social media quiz segment that the ring has 12 carats — not 14, which is what she had asked for. “No. I requested 14 but I got 12,” she said, laughing. The relationship, by all accounts, seems built on the same blunt honesty that defines her on the court.The Vogue interview itself was conducted just a day after Sabalenka’s third-round loss at the Italian Open. Frangulis spoke about how he handles her in the aftermath of defeats. “Aryna is very upset. For me, it’s a matter of being around but also giving her the space to get her thinking straight. She’s a killer, she’s the best, but sometimes it takes her 24 hours to remember that. My goal is to do whatever she’s doing, but if she wants to spend the whole day in her hotel room, I tell her we can’t just stay here as if someone has died. So tonight, we’re going out for some pasta,” he said.There’s something almost poetic about where Sabalenka is right now. Miami — the city where she received the worst news of her life in 2024 — is also the city where her Vogue cover was shot. Same hotels, same beach. A completely different chapter.She came back to the place that broke her, and made it beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and her success story (Instagram) In March 2024, Aryna Sabalenka was standing on a practice court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1139967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4105],"tags":[35772,72066,110058,89331,79,1068,16,15,86612],"class_list":["post-1139966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-gucci","tag-martina-hingis","tag-sabalenka","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vogue"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117066480310342460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1139967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}