Aryna Sabalenka made a hilarious mistake during her victory speech at the Cincinnati Open.
The third seed attempted to thank her boyfriend Georgios Frangulis after clinching the trophy with a convincing victory over Jessica Pegula.
It’s her first title win since they got together earlier this year. But she messed up her sweet tribute to her partner.
Sabalenka defeated Pegula 6-3 7-5 to lift her second title of the season in Cincinnati. She started the year by successfully defending her Australian Open crown but hadn’t gotten her hands on any silverware since then.
But she corrected that with a dominant performance throughout the week in Ohio, failing to drop a set in all five matches she played and upsetting world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semi-final. The Belarusian was understandably keen to thank her loved ones during her speech but it didn’t go to plan.
“Last but not least I want to thank my team,” she started. “We’ve been through a lot but we’ve never stopped working, never stopped improving ourselves and I’m really happy to have you by my side.”
Turning her attention to Frangulis, who was sat among her training team in her box, she accidentally made it sound like she had several love interests and was left in stitches once she realised her error. “And of course special thank you to my boyfriends – I said boyfriends, oh my god,” Sabalenka laughed.
“That’s my terrible English guys! Thank you to my boyfriend to keep me happy every day. Thank you so much.” The 26-year-old started dating Frangulis, the CEO of Oakberry, earlier this year.
Sabalenka is a brand ambassador for his acai bowl company. They made their relationship public during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after being spotted in the Haas garage. The Formula One team is also sponsored by Oakberry.
