Aryna Sabalenka’s engagement ring is shown while playing soccer on the lawn during the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday, March 4, 2026 in Indian Wells, California. Sabalenka and her fiancé Georgios Frangulis got engaged the night before. As if Aryna Sabalenka wasn’t enough to confuse her opponents, the world’s best player now has a new weapon to dazzle her opponents: an engagement ring.
Sabalenka won her opening match, beating Japanese qualifier Himeno Sakatsume 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, last Friday, days after becoming engaged to Brazilian businessman Georgios Frangulis.
The top-seeded Belarusian, who received a first-round bye and lost to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final, won her first match wearing a ring for the first time.
Sabalenka jokingly added, “I double-checked to see if there was any chance of losing the diamond and there was none, so I felt confident and comfortable and sparkly when I wore this ring.”
Sabalenka dominated Sakatsume, winning 80% of her first serve points and not once facing a break point.
Sabalenka said of Frangulis’ offer in Indian Wells on Tuesday: “I was completely unprepared. I was surprised. … The whole team knew. My agent told me I had a very important meeting for 15 minutes. Just told me to wear nice clothes. She didn’t push me so much as to put on makeup and I was very tired in the evening. I said, ‘Okay, I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to wear jeans.’
“Yeah, yeah, when we got there and saw Georgios, I was half crying because I thought I looked ugly and unprepared and this was such a beautiful moment. I stopped everything and asked the videographer and photographer to make sure there was no face on me, just a ring and, I’m not sure, just a side view and a back view. Just so you wouldn’t be shocked by what I look like.”
Sabalenka’s next opponent will be Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian. He defeated 29th seed Australian Maya Joint 0-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Fourth-seeded American Coco Gauff improved to 3-0 overall after defeating Kamila Rakhimova 6-3, 7-6(5). Gauff also defeated Uzbekistan at the Australian Open earlier this year.
“It was a difficult game,” Gauff said. “It’s awkward every time I play against her. She seemed to really struggle when things slowed down. So, yes, I have something to think about for the next game, but I’m glad I got through it.”
Additionally, 7th seed Jasmine Paolini (Italy), 10th seed Victoria Mboko (Canada), 14th seed Linda Noskova (Czech Republic), 17th seed Clara Tauson (Denmark), 23rd seed Anna Kalinskaya (Russia), and 25th seed Emma Raducanu (Great Britain) advanced to the third round.
11th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova, 21st-seeded Diana Shnaider of Russia and 30th-seeded Xinyu Wang of China lost in the second round.
–Field level media
