Aryna Sabalenka has conquered tennis courts, but the runway was a different game. On September 22, the Belarusian made her runway debut in a shimmering Gucci gown at Vogue World: Milano, walking through Milan’s iconic Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II as the event brought together fashion figures and sporting stars, including Irina Shayk and fellow tennis player Jannik Sinner. Sabalenka then confessed to Vogue that she was “super stressed,” with her heart racing like never before. Sinner joked that tennis was easier, and she agreed. Yet, when she took the floor, her commanding presence was impossible to ignore. And like most things, she thanks her mother for it.

“I feel like through fashion, you can really send a message and you can really show who you are,” Sabalenka said in an episode of her YouTube series Aryna’s Arena, titled “From the Court to the Runway”.

“I feel like my mom really influenced a lot my style and the vision of beauty of a woman. So my mom was my inspiration,” she added.  

Women and beauty. It’s a given that we can all agree on the standards of beauty imposed on women, especially in sports. They are expected to be powerful but graceful, athletic yet feminine, confident without appearing arrogant. Sabalenka, too, has earlier spoken about the difficulty of coming to terms with her body and style.

In Vogue’s May 2026 cover interview, Sabalenka discussed the criticism she encounters online.

“With a lot of love and a lot of attention and a lot of success, there’s always gonna be people who judge you,” she said. “They judge your look, they judge your grunting, your nationality, even your private life, your choices.”

Early in 2024, some people even asked her whether her lips were natural. And amidst it all, one of Sabalenka’s most enduring sources of perspective has been her mother, Yuliya. The two were never as close before, Sabalenka told Harper’s Bazaar in April this year. In the past four or five years, though, the duo has been trying to reach their “destination of best friends,” having been closer than ever.

Yuliya Sabalenka has repeatedly told her daughter that life is bigger than tennis and she never cared much whether the former world No.1 lost or won. “If I gave it my all, whether on the court or in anything else, that was her definition of success,” Sabalenka said back then in the same conversation. One piece of blunt wisdom that has stuck with the daughter, though, is that “Do not judge if you don’t want to be judged.” It works both ways beautifully.

That resilience in spirit was also passed down in style, even though Sabalenka would often disagree with her mother’s fashion advice at first: “She always dressed me very classy. She’d say, ‘You have to be chic, classy, and elegant,'” 

With time, though, like most daughters, Sabalenka came around: “Back then, I didn’t understand that. But I get it now.”

Interestingly enough, their relationship around fashion has completed a full circle. Sabalenka’s mother would once reject her daughter’s footwear choices, but today, it’s Sabalenka who takes on the role of the stylist. As she travels the world for tournaments, she picks out clothes for her mother and sends them home as carefully curated wardrobe packages.

Sabalenka says her mother now trusts her choices, a welcome change from the days when she was the one receiving fashion advice. In fact, her mother now even eyes “everything” in Sabalenka’s wardrobe like sisters and best friends do, as long as she can overcome the logistics of different sizes. She only gets a bit choosy around “too baggy or too sporty” clothes.

Thanks to the confidence her mother instilled in her, Sabalenka has kept experimenting with her style, even as she admits that she is “still learning”.

After winning the 2024 Australian Open, she posed for Vogue Australia in labels from Australian designers, saying that the country holds a special place in her heart. Her Nike kits have followed themes as well: surfing for the Australian Open, ballet for Roland Garros, cricket for Wimbledon and, in New York, basketball. And when the see-through mesh dress she wore at a US Open fan-week exhibition this year drew mixed reactions, she said she loved how bold it was and that her own opinion was the one that mattered.

Her Gucci campaign, which launched her ambassador role in January, showed her playing tennis in black stilettos and a fringe dress. Her US Open jewellery, made by New York house Material Good, drew on the city’s energy and multiculturalism.

She also told FASHION magazine that jewellery (both mother and daughter love jewellery) is her way to express herself and that she feels very confident wearing a lot of it. Her summary of the idea was “Look good, perform good”. In the new episode, she says she wants to bring fashion onto the court and make tennis look more fun and more unique.

“It’s incredible to see how tennis world really crossing with fashion nowadays,” the Belarusian added. “I love to see that and I love to get invitation to go to like fashion shows. It sounds almost impossible, but anything is possible. So I’m really happy to have this opportunity.” 

Her next chance to blend both worlds comes at the Wuhan Open, where she is the top seed after world No. 1 Elena Rybakina withdrew with a foot injury. Sabalenka lost the top ranking to Rybakina in New York, so Wuhan offers a chance to close that gap. She won the title in 2018, 2019, and 2024, so she knows the event well. If she goes deep again, her on-court looks will be on show for every match.