Macci Says Sabalenka Has Lost Her Identity as Her Season Hangs on Svitolina

Rick Macci says Aryna Sabalenka has lost her identity on court, and he said it hours before the match that decides her season. The coach who shaped Serena and Venus Williams posted the verdict on X on Thursday, a day after Sabalenka lost 11 straight games to Mirra Andreeva at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells. Sabalenka now faces Elina Svitolina on Friday in a straight eliminator for the last semifinal spot, and Macci is not sure she finds her game in time.

What did Macci actually say?

He said Sabalenka is searching for answers outside her comfort zone and has lost her identity, and he is not sure when she gets it back. “Sabalenka is searching for answers and getting way out of her comfort zone. She has lost her IDENTITY. Can she get it back? For sure. When? Not sure,” Macci wrote. He then listed the habits he thinks are the problem: coming to the net more than the situation demands, using the slice to live another day, throwing in more drop shots as a bail out, and kicking in more first serves when she owns a gun of a flat serve. “She has to control the baseline and deal the cards and run the show,” he wrote, “and win or lose this is the way to go.”

Why does Macci’s word carry weight here?

Because he has seen this player at her best and he was backing her twelve days ago. Macci is 71 and coached Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati and Maria Sharapova in their formative years, so a public diagnosis from him lands differently than a pundit’s. On November 1 he posted that Sabalenka would flip the script and get back on track, calling her still one of the best ball strikers on tour. The November 13 post is the opposite of that. A coach who told her to keep attacking now says she has drifted so far from her game that he cannot see the way back yet.

How did the Andreeva collapse unfold?

In 62 minutes, from a position of total control. Sabalenka led 4-1 in the first set and then lost 11 straight games, 6-4, 6-0, winning only 10 of the next 55 points. She hit 23 unforced errors and produced no aces at Indian Wells, the same venue where she lifted the WTA title in March. Andreeva clinched top spot in the group and a semifinal place on her WTA Finals debut, and Sabalenka’s own verdict at the press conference was blunter than Macci’s: asked what she would say to herself as her own coach, she replied, “What a f***ing loser,” then laughed and urged herself to keep going. She also confirmed at the same press conference that her collaboration with Max Mirnyi has ended, which is the second coaching change in a season that keeps slipping.

Is this a one-off bad day?

No, and that is Macci’s point. The pattern runs through the whole season. At Roland Garros she led Diana Shnaider 6-3, 4-1 in the quarter-final and won one more game. In Berlin, Jessica Pegula bageled her in a 28-minute third set. In Cincinnati she squandered a 4-1 second-set lead against Sara Bejlek. She lost in the second round in Wuhan and arrived in Indian Wells with barely any momentum. She has won no Grand Slam in 2026, the first such season since 2022, losing the Australian Open and US Open finals to Elena Rybakina, and her last title came in March at Miami. Rybakina’s rise and Sabalenka’s early China Open exit were already the story of the autumn, and the Andreeva defeat is the same collapse in a bigger room. The week has also produced the hot-mic row that saw Sabalenka apologise after a beIN Sports broadcast comment, so the identity question is arriving in a week when her composure is already under scrutiny.

What is at stake on Friday?

Her season, in one match. Sabalenka plays Svitolina at 1:30pm PT with the last semifinal spot from the group on the line, and the winner plays Linda Noskova. Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 6-1, but Svitolina is the player in form: she recovered from a first-match loss to beat Karolina Muchova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, won the Rome title this year by beating Coco Gauff in the final, and a win would put her in a first semifinal here since 2019. Sabalenka has cleared the round-robin phase at each of the last four WTA Finals, so losing ends that run and her season in the same afternoon. She has acknowledged that some changes might be necessary, and the knee strapping she has worn all week drew attention in the Andreeva match, but Macci’s diagnosis is not about the knee. It is about a player who has stopped trusting the thing that made her the world No. 1.

What happens next?

Friday decides it. If Sabalenka beats Svitolina, she reaches the semifinals and gets a chance to answer Macci on court, with Noskova waiting. If she loses, the identity question follows her into the offseason, along with the coaching vacancy left by the Mirnyi split and a season with no Grand Slam title. Macci’s prescription is simple enough to state and hard enough to execute under pressure: back to the baseline, control the rallies, deal the cards and run the show, win or lose. Friday afternoon in Indian Wells is where that prescription gets tested.