Arena sabala's former boyfriend Constantine colov died earlier this year Arena sabalenka has opened up about how the death of her former boyfriend earlier this year made her want to stop playing tennis Constantine colof a professional ice hockey player fell from the balcony of a Miami hotel and was pronounced dead at the age of 34 police ruled cof's death as an apparent suicide and confirmed that no foul play was suspected regarding the circumstances it was widely reported at the time that sabalenka was still dating ksof but she later confirmed that they had broken up prior to his death sabalenka was spotted on the practice Courts at the Miami open less than 24 hours after colo's death had been confirmed she went on to suffer a second round defeat at the hands of an helina kalinina before thanking her fans for their messages of support on social media the two-time Grand Slam Champion has since admitted that she should have taken a break from tennis with the death of her former boyfriend taking a serious toll on her mental health once I lost my father and Tennis helped me to go through that tough loss she told the guardian so at that moment of cof's death I thought I had to just keep going keep playing keep doing my thing to separate my personal life from my career life at the end I would say I was struggling a lot healthwise because I didn't stop it was really emotional and really stressful and kind of damaged my mental Health at that point probably looking back right now I would say that a better decision would have been to step back reset and recharge and start everything over again but I did what I did at the end I paid for my decision but I'm really glad that I have tennis in my life and it's really helped me go through whatever and get stronger sabalenka wore all black at the Miami open and was clearly emotional during her second round defeat to kalinina