Sabalenka Addresses Reports She Has Split With Coach Mirnyi at the WTA Finals

Aryna Sabalenka has addressed reports that she has split with coach Max Mirnyi, confirming only that he is not with her at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells. Reports from tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg and former players Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze say the pair parted ways just before the tournament, along with her physiotherapist, but neither Sabalenka nor her camp has publicly confirmed the departures. Sabalenka called Mirnyi “a great supporter” after her opening win over Karolina Muchova on Monday, and the question now is whether a team change in the middle of the season’s biggest event helps or hurts her chase for the one title she has never won.

Has Sabalenka actually split with Mirnyi?

That is the reported position, but it is not a confirmed one. Rothenberg reported the split, and Safina and Chakvetadze discussed it on their tennis podcast, saying Mirnyi was not expected in Indian Wells this week, TennisWatcher reports. The same reports say her physiotherapist has also left the team. TennisWatcher is explicit that neither Sabalenka nor her camp has publicly confirmed the departures, so the careful reading is that the partnership appears to be over, while the player herself has only confirmed his absence.

The distinction matters because Sabalenka chose her words carefully when asked about it. She did not announce a split, and she did not criticise Mirnyi. She confirmed the fact in front of her and left the rest to the reporting, which is a long way from the clean break the headlines suggest. Elena Rybakina’s withdrawal from the same tournament was the story that reshaped the draw, and the Mirnyi reports landed on top of it within a day.

What did Sabalenka say about Mirnyi?

She spoke warmly about him, and about what he was hired to do. “He is not here at Indian Wells with us, but Max has always been a great supporter,” she said after beating Muchova, following a question from Christian’s Court, Tennishead reports. Then she explained the role: “He would always message and give his advice, and yeah, having someone who was, I feel like, almost invisible or really number one in doubles, to help me with that net approach, it is really important. He had been mostly focusing on my game at the net and we are trying to improve that.”

It is the language of a player describing a valued colleague, not a sacking. Mirnyi, a former doubles world No. 1 and a 10-time Grand Slam champion across doubles and mixed doubles, was hired primarily to improve her net game, Tennishead reports. The praise for his work sits awkwardly next to a split reported in the same week, and neither side has explained why the partnership ended. The week had already produced one awkward moment for Sabalenka, when a beIN SPORTS commentator was heard calling her “horrible” on air during her introduction.

What did Mirnyi do for her game?

He was the net-game specialist in a team built around her power. Mirnyi joined the coaching team in August 2025, a few weeks after Wimbledon, TennisWatcher reports, and worked alongside head coach Anton Dubrov. His arrival was unusual for the women’s tour, where top players rarely travel with two coaches at the same event, and he helped broaden her tactics, especially her movement to the net and her occasional serve-and-volley.

The results with him were strong. Sabalenka won the 2025 US Open, the 2026 Indian Wells title and the 2026 Miami Open with Mirnyi on the team, Tennishead reports, and she reached the finals of the 2025 WTA Finals, the 2026 Australian Open and the 2026 US Open. When she won Indian Wells in March, she credited him with helping her shift her game, and Kim Clijsters praised the partnership, TennisWatcher reports. That record is why the timing of the reported split, days before the season’s final event, has drawn so much attention.

Who is left on Sabalenka’s team?

The core of it. Following Mirnyi’s departure, her team consists of coach Anton Dubrov and fitness coach Jason Stacy, Tennishead reports. Dubrov has worked with her since 2020 and Stacy since 2018, TennisWatcher reports, and there is no indication of any change involving either of them. Mirnyi worked as a consultant alongside Dubrov rather than as her head coach, so the structure that remains is the one that carried her to world No. 1 before Mirnyi arrived.

The changes are not limited to the coaching box, though. Before the Finals, Sabalenka confirmed she has resumed working with a sports psychologist, having stopped in 2023, TennisWatcher reports. She said she felt she needed someone to help her find herself again, and that she has been trying to stop overthinking, trust her instincts and move on from bad results more quickly. Her season had already slipped away since the spring, with the year-end No. 1 race decided elsewhere, and the staff changes look like part of a wider reset.

Why is the timing so awkward?

Because it comes in the middle of the tournament she most wants to win, after a season that has gone sideways. She has not won a title in nearly eight months, since her Indian Wells triumph, TennisWatcher reports. Her Asian swing was poor: a third-round loss to Nikola Bartunkova at the China Open and a second-round loss to Ann Li in Wuhan, leaving her with one win from her previous four tournaments. It is her first season since 2022 without a Grand Slam title, despite reaching two major finals. The China Open had already cost her, with both top seeds falling on consecutive days, and the slump has followed her into the autumn.

On court, at least, the news has not unsettled her. She opened her Group 2 campaign on Monday by beating Muchova 7-6(2), 7-5, and she faces French Open champion Mirra Andreeva on Wednesday. Andreeva beat her in their last meeting, the 2025 Indian Wells final, but Sabalenka leads their head-to-head 4-2, Tennishead reports. “I mean, for sure, always,” she said, laughing, when asked if she would treat it as a rematch. “But that match was an incredible match. I am looking forward, and I will take that match as a rematch mentality.”

What happens next?

Wednesday, first of all. The Andreeva match will go a long way to deciding Group 2, and a win would put Sabalenka in sight of the semi-finals at the third time of asking. The WTA Finals remain one of the few major prizes missing from her collection: she reached the final in 2022, losing to Caroline Garcia, and again in 2025, when Elena Rybakina beat her in Riyadh, TennisWatcher reports. With Rybakina out of this year’s event through illness, Sabalenka is the highest seed left in the draw.

How she reshapes her team will become clearer before the 2027 season begins in January, TennisWatcher reports. For now the focus is on ending a difficult year with the one big title she has never won, and on whether the team she has left is enough to do it. The reported split is a story about a partnership that worked. The next three matches will say whether ending it mid-tournament was a gamble or a release.