Belarusian world No.2 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka is mourning the loss of her partner, Konstantin Koltsov.
Konstantin Koltsov, a former ice hockey player, passed away in the USA, aged 42. It’s unclear at this stage how he died.
“It is with deep sorrow that we inform you that the coach of Salavat Yulaev, Konstantin Koltsov, has passed away,” Koltsov’s hockey club Salavat Yulaev, which is based in the Russian city of Ufa, said in the statement.
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“He was a strong and cheerful person, he was loved and respected by players, colleagues, and fans. Konstantin Evgenievich forever wrote himself into the history of our club.
“May he rest in peace.”
He played for the Belarus national team, as well as several professional clubs in Belarus, Russia, and the Pittsburgh Penguins in America’s NHL, where he played 144 games across parts of three seasons between 2002 and 2006.
The right-winger represented his country at the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as at nine world championships.
Since 2017, he had been working as an assistant coach at Salavat Yulaev Ufa, which was one of the nine clubs he was at during his playing career.
Sabalenka was scheduled to play in the Miami Open, which is starting this week.
World No.41 Sloane Stephens appeared to reference the devastating news on social media.
“That moment when you can actually feel the pain in your chest from hearing something or seeing something that breaks your heart,” she tweeted.
Kolstov and Sabalenka were born in the same Belarusian city of Minsk.
Their relationship became official in 2021, with two-time Australian Open champion Sabalenka sharing a loved-up photo with Kolstov kissing her on the cheek.
“It’s good when there is someone who is able to understand my madness, but you won’t get bored with me, right @koltsov2021?” she captioned the post from three years ago.
The 25-year-old tennis star had shared regular updates of the couple’s love life in the years since.
It’s the second terrible tragedy in Sabalenka’s life, who lost her father five years ago.
Sabalenka’s relationship with her father Sergey, who died in 2019, featured in Netflix series Break Point where she revealed their “one dream” together: win two grand slam titles before she turned 25.
“Now I’m 24 and there is zero in my pocket,” she said in the docu-series at the time.
After taking out her second-straight Australian Open title earlier this year, the popular tennis champion celebrated the deeply significant milestone with a kiss to the stars.
“He’s my biggest motivation. He’s been everything for me,” she said of her late father at the time.
