Aryna Sabalenka nearly turned to former World No.1 as coach prior to Anton Dubrov hire

Aryna Sabalenka is now a three-time Grand Slam champion but perhaps her fortunes would've been slightly different had she hired former World No.1, Dinara Safina as her coach back in 2019.

Safina opined that she was asked to coach the Belarusian who had just split from her long-time coach Dmitry Tursunov who helped take her game to new heights as she became a top WTA name. Shortly after the split, Sabalenka was looking for a replacement and one of her candidates was Safina.

The Russian tennis legend declined as Sabalenka needed a coach quickly and she couldn't commit. She then turned to Anton Dubrov and the rest they say is history.

"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 that. But I understand Aryna, because I behaved the same way when I was a player. I also said: 'I need a coach tomorrow!'" the former two-time French Open finalist told Championat.

From one top name to another, Safina also nearly coached Mirra Andreeva before she joined forces with Conchita Martinez.

"They were looking for a coach for Mirra. Her agent called many specialists, asked if there was a desire, and then they offered ready-made coaches to Andreeva for her to choose. They called me too, I said that it sounded great, but I was not ready to skate with Mirra all over the world (smiles) . Of course, it would have been an interesting option, but in the end, Conchita [Martinez] works with her ― she’s great. She’s the coach who helps Mirra a lot

"She doesn’t need to add many nuances, literally bit by bit. Cut the corner a little more somewhere, meet the ball a little earlier somewhere, use a little more shortened ones. Well, and we could add more combinations that she would perform automatically at decisive moments."

While she also discussed the current state of the sport back in her day compared to now with only two names who are ultra consistent.

"In my time, there were more consistent players. There were Serena and Venus Williams, Davenport, Mauresmo, Henin, Sharapova, Clijsters and so on. All were consistent all year round, they rarely had easy losses. The top 10 was very tight, you couldn't touch the girls. And now someone can fail three or four tournaments and then return to the top 10. Now there is Gauff, Pegula, but they are all inconsistent. Only Sabalenka and Swiatek played the whole season almost without slumps."