Three Reasons Why Belarusian Fans Despise Sabalenka

The tennis player does not hide her connections with the Lukashenka regime.

The other day, Aryna Sabalenka missed her chance to become the first racket of the world, losing in the Wimbledon semi-finals. After reading the comments of Belarusian fans on the internet, you can easily find out that this did not become a chagrin for them.

In the past, even propagandist Ryhor Azaronak drew attention to the negative reaction in Belarus to the achievements of Aryna Sabalenka.

“Sabalenka reached the final of the Australian Championship. They start digging into the biography. They publish news about her, you can put all sorts of reactions there. They only put dislikes. You saw the reactions: 1 [positive] and 3,000 [negative]. They wish her defeat,” Azaronak was indignant.

The UDF lists the reasons why Belarusian fans feel so negative about the best Belarusian tennis player.

Lukashenka used Sabalenka for his PR

In 2018, a very strange meeting took place at the Palace of Independence: Sabalenka, who had already become a world famous tennis player, came to talk with Aliaksandr Lukashenka tete-a-tete. The press service of the head of Belarus stressed that the meeting took place at the request of Sabalenka, but spoke very vaguely about the need for communication.

Only recently, the background was explained on the ChestnOK YouTube channel. It turns out that in her youth, Sabalenka signed an unprofitable contract with a Russian sports agent. To circumvent legal norms, she turned to Lukashenka, whose subordinates explained to the agent what negative consequences he could expect if he did not release the Belarusian tennis player.

In 2020, Sabalenka turned a blind eye to violence in Belarus and chose the side of Lukashenka

Although initially it seemed that the tennis player, like other famous Belarusian athletes (for example, basketball player Yelena Leuchanka and swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenya) would make an obvious moral choice.

On August 13, Sabalenka posted the following on her social media accounts:

“I can't believe that all this is happening in my peaceful native Belarus. I can't sleep for the fourth night already, I can't look at the cruelty towards defenseless people. For what? Please stop the violence!!! Take care of yourself and your loved ones, my dear Belarusians.”

However, Sabalenka did not directly name the party responsible for the violence against civilians. And then she completely fell silent about the terrible events taking place in Belarus. In response to the reproaches of the public, the tennis player began to respond aggressively in the comments and claimed she was being bullied.

And at the end of 2020, Sabalenka signed a pro-government letter from Belarusian athletes, which said that their “duty is not to make political appeals, but to win in sports arenas.” This letter appeared in defiance of the appeal of athletes who were not afraid to speak out against violence in the country.

A month later, with her actions, Sabalenka finally emphasized that she had chosen the side of the dictator: the tennis player appeared at the New Year's reception with Lukashenka, who cracked down on popular protests against his usurpation of power.

After the attack on Ukraine, Sabalenka refused to condemn the aggressors

At the time of the attack of Russian troops on Ukraine in February 2022 (including with the consent of Lukashenka from the territory of Belarus), Sabalenka was one of the first tennis players on the planet. Given that she lives in the United States, it seemed that it would not be a problem for Sabalenka to condemn the aggressors and co-aggressors.

But no. The Belarusian tennis player, despite the daily loss of life in Ukraine, pretended not to want to “get into politics”. It was not until January 2023 that she stated that “no one supports the war”. She added the words that raise doubts about the voiced position though:

“Why do we have to shout about it everywhere? It won't help at all.”

Finally, only in June of this year, Sabalenka, responding to the reproaches of journalists, said:

“I do not support the war, which means that I do not support Lukashenka at the moment.”

And again there was a feeling that the tennis player said this not sincerely, but under pressure. The clause about not supporting Lukashenka “at the moment” hints at something else.

Just after this statement, a show was released on Netflix in which the Belarusian tennis player, with tears in her eyes, told what kind of hatred she faced for not condemning the war in Ukraine.

However, Sabalenka could not move Belarusian fans to pity. Football coach Aliaksandr Khatskevich recently expressed an idea that many of them probably share.

“Now these victories (of Sabalenka and Azaranka) make me less happy there, because after all the girls are independent, rich girls, but without positions. You must clearly say “I am against the war”. And not like this: “I am against any war”. Against any war? Now one war is going on in Europe, 500 kilometers from your home. And you say I'm against any war. You live in America, train in America. I don’t understand all this trying to get away with general phrases,” Khatskevich noted.