“I think we really have to ask them how they handle me, because that’s tricky, that’s another question”, answered Sabalenka good-humoredly, after a reporter asked whether it was difficult to manage her all-male team.

What followed was a comical turn of events as Sabalenka looked to her team to ask if it was fun being around her. One of her team members said teasingly, “stressful.” The Belarusian jokingly cursed her team, but later restrained herself as she realized she was at a press conference. In fact, this camaraderie reaches to some rather funny heights all the time.

During her Australian Open campaign in 2024, Sabalenka revealed an unusual ritual she follows with trainer Jason Stacy. She revealed that before every match, she would sign Stacy’s bald head and proceed with the match.

“After I won, I told Jason, ‘Well, I guess it’s a routine right now.’ He’s like, ‘OK, anything for the win.’ I’m like, ‘Thank you,'” she said during her post-match interaction after defeating Amanda Anisimova in the fourth round of the 2024 Australian Open.

Sabalenka’s banter with her team is well known in the tennis world. From making TikTok videos together to the Belarusian getting matching outfits and tattoos together, the team believes in keeping things light off-court so that the current World No. 1 can be at her brutal best on the court.

This bond is the result of Sabalenka working with her coach, Anton Dubrov, and her trainer, Jason Stacy, for the last eight years. This is not the only time that Sabalenka has been seen in a light-hearted mood at the French Open. While dispatching her opponents on the Parisian clay with authority, the Belarusian has a joy-filled dancing competition going on with Novak Djokovic.

Even though the question at the press conference created a light-hearted atmosphere in the room due to Sabalenka and her team’s bond, fans on social media were more critical of the questions asked of the Belarusian.

Fans call out the journalist over the awkward question

Fans were not happy with the journalist’s question about Sabalenka’s team. The overall sentiment on social media was that the question was unrelated to the sport and beneath journalistic standards.

One person commented that the journalist’s questions always bordered on making the player uncomfortable, while citing the previous media hype regarding a possible relationship between Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu. “I’d love to know why tennis reporters always ask these weird questions. I feel like a lot of them try to play matchmaker or something. Always so uncomfortable like that whole fiasco with Carlos and Emma,” said one fan.

Sabalenka is always the one to openly share her life off the court with her followers. But just because she chooses to do so doesn’t mean someone should force the answers out of her, at least that’s what one person believed: “All the interview questions I saw so far are not tennis related,” said one fan.

One fan commented on a similar sentiment, calling out the journalistic standards: “They need real reporters at these tennis matches!!,” the fan commented.

Another fan pointed out the type of question, saying, “What kind of questions do these people ask?”

However, it is important to see the growing storyline here. Reporters across various sports are now just as invested in players’ personal lives as they are in their professional lives. It is still up to the players whether they wish to go along.

Yet another fan went a step further, claiming that such questions made the journalists look like novices, as if it were their first day on the job. “These RG journalist are asking questions that make it seem like its their first day on the job”, said the fan.

Journalists have previously been criticized for asking non-tennis-related questions, often asking players personal questions as well. But despite those criticisms, they have a job to do: asking questions that are entertaining and attract readers’ attention.