Arina sabalenka opened up on the support she received from her boyfriend Arena sabalenka has credited her boyfriend for lifting her up during what has been a difficult year the world number two is bidding to win her third Grand Slam title at the US Open having reached the final 12 months ago ahead of her quarterfinal sabalenka gushed about her partner Georgios frangulis and explained how happy she was to have his support sabalenka and frangulis first went public with their relationship back in May as they were invited to the hos team garage at the Amelia Romania Grand Prix Fran gulus is the founder of oakberry and sabalenka is a brand ambassador for the Akai company since their first outing earlier this year frangulis has followed the two-time Grand Slam Champion around the world on the professional tennis tour and sabalenka has now thanked her boyfriend for his support there was a really tough period where I was really happy to have him by my side always cheering me up always making sure that we are doing some fun stuff the Belarusian told people but I make sure I kind of forget about tennis and focus on the good things and enjoy my life even when things are going wrong in my career so yeah he was my biggest support and yeah really happy to have him by my sabalenka has been through highs and lows this season she was forced to pull out of Wimbledon with a shoulder injury and skipped the Olympics away from the tennis court her ex-boyfriend Constantine Koff passed away during the Miami open in March and she admitted it had been a difficult year