Aryna Sabalenka‘s 2026 season till now has been a rollercoaster, filled with thrilling highs and frustrating lows. While she dominated the tour with back-to-back Masters titles, Grand Slam glory for the world No. 1 has continued to slip away. Now, as her grass-court campaign begins at Berlin Tennis Open, her performance coach Jason Stacy admits they may have made a costly mistake with the schedule, one that perhaps didn’t help her at all.

“Maybe the decision we made, as far as scheduling and timing of certain things in our approach, it sounded good, and we all were bought into it, and we thought it might work really well based on last year’s outcome,” Stacy added in an exclusive interview with Tennis 365.

However, the 57-year-old also acknowledged that the results told a different story. “But, if you just go based on results, maybe it wasn’t the best plan, so we’ll go back and review what worked, what didn’t work, what maybe we could do differently next season to help prepare better.”

He also accepted responsibility for the decisions made during the entire clay-court swing. Stacy admitted the strategy simply failed to deliver the outcome they had expected from the Belarusian top seed.

“Clay, we made a decision, we had to, for a couple reasons, and [it] didn’t work out the way we wanted,” Stacy explained, who has been working with Aryna since 2018.

For the Belarusian, she entered the clay season full of confidence. The 28-year-old had just claimed back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami Open, making her one of the toughest players on tour.

However, her momentum faded once the clay events began. She played 2 WTA Masters tournaments before the Parisian Slam but struggled to maintain her best level. In the Madrid Open, Sabalenka reached the QF before suffering a surprise defeat to Hailey Baptiste where the 24-year-old American edged her out in a tense final-set tiebreak.

The disappointment continued in the Italian capital. The Belarusian was knocked out in the 2nd round by Sorana Cirstea, raising fresh questions before the French Open. Even so, the 4-time Grand Slam winner arrived in Paris looking confident after winning four straight matches without dropping a set.

But everything changed in the QF against Diana Shnaider. After leading by a set and 4-1, the Belarusian suddenly lost 9 consecutive games and watched the match slip away.

Fortunately for the current world No. 1, her grass-court form has looked much stronger as of now. She recently defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-4 in 81 minutes to reach the Berlin QF for the 3rd consecutive year.

Now hoping to carry that momentum into the rest of the grass season, Aryna Sabalenka is searching for the perfect reset. And as she now chases her 1st grass court Slam, Sabalenka also continues to highlight the importance of having the one right people around modern players throughout the long and demanding season.

Aryna Sabalenka takes suggestions from former psychologist ahead of Wimbledon

Despite the disappointment in the French Open this year, Aryna Sabalenka has enjoyed another impressive season in 2026. She has already collected 3 titles and remained one of the WTA Tour’s most consistent performers.

Her year began with a WTA 500 title in the Brisbane Internationals. She then added back-to-back WTA 1000 crowns while also finishing runner-up to Elena Rybakina at the AO.

However, before returning to competition at the WTA 500 event in Berlin, her first grass-court tournament of the season, the Belarusian decided to seek guidance from her former psychologist after the French Open shocker. 

“We had a lot of chats with the team. I called my psychologist that I used to work with. It just felt like I needed to talk through everything I’ve been going through in the last I-don’t-know-how-many years,” Sabalenka said during a conversation with Bounces before her match against Alexandrova.

Sabalenka also admitted those conversations gave her a fresh perspective. “It was really helpful. I kind of changed a lot of things, and I’m trying a lot of new things right now. I feel like I need to figure out what’s happening, sometimes, in those matches to [be able to] move on and to avoid these situations happening.”

The Belarusian top seed will now be hoping to book a place in the Berlin SF and build momentum over the next few days. A strong run there could give her the confidence she has been looking for before she heads towards the SW19 starting from June 29th.