Building the Best

A pre-French Open final interview with Anton Dubrov, coach of dominant WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

PARIS, France — The first French Open women’s singles semifinal on Thursday afternoon was a thriller through two sets. But when push came to shove in the third set, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka didn’t just push or shove, she slammed, rammed, and jammed her way through defending champion Iga Swiatek, dropping just six points in the final frame to seal a 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-0 victory.

When stakes were highest, and nerves should have been tightest, Sabalenka swung big and won big.

“She played like she didn't doubt,” Swiatek said of Sabalenka’s third set. “She just went for it.”

Iga Swiatek. (Photo by Regina Cortina)

The ultimately decisive loss halted Swiatek’s historic pursuit of a four-peat at Roland Garros, stopping her match win streak here at 26.

But as much as the defeat dramatically ended a chapter for Swiatek, it was an equally emphatic consolidation of the coronation of Aryna Sabalenka, who is now surely the undisputed best player in women’s tennis right now—anytime, anywhere.

Pick any possible opponent, pick any possible surface, pick any possible tournament…and you should be picking Sabalenka.

Aryna Sabalenka at Roland Garros. (Photo by Regina Cortina)

Sabalenka has now reached the finals of five majors in a row when she’s been able to play healthy, only missing last year’s Wimbledon due to a shoulder injury and being scuttled by illness at last year’s French Open.

So in advance of No. 1 Sabalenka’s sixth career major final on Saturday—which will be a blockbuster battle against No. 2 Coco Gauff, who ended the fairytale run of Loïs Boisson—I am delighted to bring Bounces readers an exclusive interview with Sabalenka’s longtime coach Anton Dubrov, a fellow Belarusian who has worked with her since 2019.

Anton Dubrov, coach of WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, at Roland Garros on Thursday. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg for Bounces)

Unlike Swiatek’s coach Wim Fissette, whom I interviewed a few days ago for Bounces after knowing him for more than a decade, I had never actually done a full interview with Dubrov before this. Sabalenka’s rise to the very top of women’s tennis largely came during the pandemic and then while I was focused on writing my book on Naomi Osaka, so Sabalenka’s team has been a relative blindspot for me.

But after staking out the players’ restaurant under Court Philippe Chatrier following the semifinal, I was delighted to meet Dubrov and speak to him at length about Sabalenka, their work together, and the upcoming final against Gauff.

In a lengthy sit-down interview, Dubrov and I discussed Sabalenka’s development as a more complete, controlled player; her personality and evolution; how she handles the stress and pressure of Grand Slam finals; how Sabalenka has changed over the many years they’ve known each other; the match-up against Gauff; and more.

Also, to further sweeten the deal for Bounces subscribers, I also interviewed Gauff’s coach Jean-Christophe Faurel a few hours later in a similar spot; that shorter interview is included here below the paywall as well, as a sort of dessert after the meaty main course.

I don’t believe any other reporters spoke to either of these coaches today, to my knowledge, so these exclusive interviews are another great reason to subscribe to Bounces—in my humble opinion—and a pretty neato way for any tennis fan looking to gear up for the year’s second major final.

And thank you to all who have subscribed already to Bounces to help offset the costs of traveling to cover these tennis tournaments around the world. I couldn’t be doing reporting trips like this without you, and I hope more of y’all can join up so we can keep it going! -Ben