"I’ve never faced that much hate in the locker room": Sabalenka opens up on aggression felt from fellow WTA players over war

Aryna Sabalenka opened up about feeling quite a bit of animosity in the WTA locker due to the war in Ukraine which Belarus didn't denounce.

Sabalenka was quite open and categorical about her stance of the war explaining that no player is responsible for the actions of their government expressing her hope for peace. Even so, she remains one of the players with a target on her back simply due to her nationality which she didn't choose either.

Ahead of the Miami Open, Sabalenka admitted it was tough dealing with the 'hate' in the locker room:

“It was really, really tough for me because I’ve never faced that much hate in the locker room. Of course, there are a lot of haters on Instagram when you’re losing the matches, but like in the locker room, I’ve never faced that. It was really tough for me to understand that there’s so many people who really hate me for no reason, like no reason. I mean, like I did nothing.”

Tensions kind of boiled over when Lesia Tsurenko withdrew before facing Sabalenka citing a panic attack due to the war back in her home country. Her coach even claimed that Sabalenka supports the war which she never expressed. She's dealing with it better now:

“It was really tough but now it’s getting better. I had some, not like fights, but I had some weird conversations with, not the girls, but with members of their team. It was really, it was tough. It was tough period. But, now it’s getting better.”

She also revealed that she's mostly trying to focus on her own but she feels aggression from some players:

“It seems like, everyone’s just ignoring each other. Not everyone actually, I’m still talking to some of the Ukrainians, but there are some of the girls who are like really aggressive against us. So I’m just staying away from that.”