WTA World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was strutting in a black swimsuit at an outdoor tennis court during her photoshoot with Time magazine, as seen in a Friday Instagram post.
Sabalenka, who is on the cover of Time’s Sept. 7 issue, shared some of the action behind the scenes at a South Florida home, not far from where she lives.
The 28-year-old Belarusian pro, who looked stunning in a cheeky one-piece by Gucci with sunglasses, was seen walking across the court in a pair of kitten heels.
The four-time major champion smiled and posed with one leg propped up as she grabbed the net of a basketball hoop.
“Just hanging… bts of my @time cover shoot 😎,” she captioned her post.
Sabalenka opened up on a wide variety of topics in the interview, such as finding the balance between her sport and life off the court.
“I want to be remembered as a fighter on court, but so cool and fun off court,” she said. “I think it’s really important for kids to understand that you have to balance.
“You don’t have to be fully, fully focused on your dreams. One day they can destroy you.”
Sabalenka is coming off a fourth-round exit with a loss to 19th-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova at the 2026 Canadian Open last week.
It came after her fourth-round defeat to Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon in July, when she told reporters she wanted to “get completely drunk” and “forget about tennis” after the loss.
“I had a couple of drinks,” Sabalenka told Time of her vacation to Greece after Wimbledon.
“I danced a little bit, I forgot about tennis for a couple days. But I never get drunk,” she said.
She added that she danced, sipped espresso martinis, lounged poolside and dived off a boat into the Aegean Sea.
Sabalenka has her sights set on a third straight U.S. Open victory when the tournament returns to New York later this month.
She would become the first player since Serena Williams 12 years ago to three-peat at the US Open — and just the third woman in the modern era to do it. Tennis legend Chris Evert was the other.
“It’s history,” Sabalenka said. “You get hungrier as you go.”
