{"id":529419,"date":"2026-03-17T20:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/529419\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T20:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:35:08","slug":"sabalenka-strikes-back-after-dubai-diss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/529419\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka Strikes Back After Dubai Diss"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.\u2014 World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka arrived at her pre-tournament interviews on Tuesday at the Miami Open in a typically bubbly mood.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is a reliably buoyant presence, but she\u2019s enjoying an especially high tide right now after several big moments in recent weeks. She recently acquired, in order: a new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Ash; a massive diamond engagement ring from her fianc\u00e9, Georgios Frangulis; and her first title at ATP-WTA 1000 Indian Wells.<\/p>\n

But Sabalenka\u2019s tone changed abruptly when, as she was talking about her scheduling decisions, I asked her about the sharp rebuke she\u2019d drawn from tournament director Salah Tahlak after withdrawing from his WTA 1000 Dubai event last month. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday at the Miami Open. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg for Bounces)<\/p>\n

The WTA No. 1 did not hold back, and threatened to boycott one of the WTA\u2019s elite events\u2014the one in the city where she\u2019s based, no less.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure if I ever want to go [back] there, after his comment.\u201d -Aryna Sabalenka<\/p>\n

To read the rest of this news story, and all of my coverage from the 2026 Miami Open, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben<\/p>\n

Get 20% off a group subscription<\/a><\/p>\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.\u2014 World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka arrived at her pre-tournament interviews on Tuesday at the Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-529419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}