Aryna Sabalenka consolidated its dominance in the women’s circuit tennis after conquering the Brisbane WTA 500 tournamentwhere he did not lose a set in five matches. This victory confirmed his status as world number one after an outstanding previous season with finals in three of the four Grand Slams.
During the awards ceremony, the focus shifted from the trophy to an unexpected gesture of Sabalenka. In front of the crowd and with the presence of her partner in the stands, the Belarusian tennis player spoke and surprised everyone present. “Thanks to my boyfriend. I hope I can call you something else soon”unleashed laughter from the fans while the camera focused on the recipient of his proposal. “I just put a little pressure on it, didn’t I?”complete.
The recipient of the public marriage request was George FrangulisBrazilian businessman and founder of Oakberry. The relationship with Sabalenka has been a source of interest after the unusual moment experienced on the podium.
The athlete and her partner have been together since July 2024, six months after Sabalenka became an ambassador for Oakberry, the açaí brand founded by Frangulis. He studied Law at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), although he never took the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) exam. Later, he chose the path of entrepreneurship and founded his own company. “I always knew that I would not be a lawyer. I thought that law would help me in any field. What I really wanted was to be an entrepreneur,” he said in an interview with Forbes.
The exact origin of the relationship between the tennis player and the entrepreneur was not detailed personally by the couple, but various indications suggest that their approach would have begun within the framework of Sabalenka’s collaboration with the Brazilian firm of Frangulis, who lived for a long time in São Paulo.
The peculiar request came after a final against Marta Kostyuk in which tensions abounded. The Belarusian won 6-4, 6-3, giving way to a saga of gestures and attitudes that caused controversy.
Sabalenka He celebrated the victory by kissing both bicepsan indirect response to recent criticism from his rival. In October 2025, the Ukrainian had denounced that Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek had a “sports advantage” due to supposedly high levels of testosterone: “Each player has their biological structure and there are some who have higher levels of testosterone and others lower. It is something natural that definitely helps them. They are much bigger, taller and stronger than me,” she said then.
And, subsequently, the Ukrainian Kostyuk maintained her usual stance since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022: not greeting opponents from Russia and Belarus in protest.
During the award ceremony, the finalist dedicated her speech to the situation. “I want to say a few words about Ukraine. I play every day with pain in my heart. There are thousands of people who right now do not have electricity or hot water. It is -20 degrees outside. It is very painful to live this reality. My sister sleeps under three blankets because it is very cold at home. I was very excited and happy to see so many Ukrainian flags this week,” he said.
For her part, at the coronation, Sabalenka adopted a conciliatory tone in her turn at the microphone. He congratulated Kostyuk and his team for “an incredible start to the season” and expressed his desire to meet again in future finals. The athlete has publicly reiterated her opposition to war since 2023: “No one in this world, Russian or Belarusian athletes, supports war. Who can support a war? Normal people would never do it. If I could make them stop, I would. But unfortunately it is not in our hands.”
