A little over a week after losing in the US Open final, Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka took part in the Vogue World show in Milan. The athlete, known for her interest in fashion and collaborations with major brands, took to the catwalk in a Gucci dress by Demna Gvasilia.
The annual Vogue World show was held in Milan for the first time in the history of the project – on the first day of Fashion Week. The venue was the Victor Emmanuel II Gallery, and the main theme of the show was “craftsmanship and human touch,” Vogue notes.
The Milan show was divided into five acts: “The Craft Revolution”, “The Industrial Revolution”, “Made in Italy” and “The Revolution of the Imagination”. The running theme was “a continuous dialogue between hand and machine,” and therefore the products were made from different materials – from brocade created from Renaissance designs to wool and textiles.
Sabalenka came out to the audience in the third act of the show in a shimmering brown floor-length Gucci dress with a high collar. As Vogue notes, her appearance amazed the public. At the end, the tennis player returned to the podium along with other Vogue World participants for a final bow to the song Gloria by Italian singer Umberto Tozzi.
The Belarusian athlete announced her collaboration with the Gucci fashion house in January. In May 2026, she also posed exclusively in the brand's designs for the digital cover of Vogue.
Before the show, Sabalenka was spotted backstage with Russian model Irina Shayk. In a video filmed shortly before going on the podium, the tennis player says: “I’m learning, learning from the best.”
At the 2026 US Open, Sabalenka reached the final, where she lost to Elena Rybakina, who changed her sports citizenship from Russia to Kazakhstan, with a score of 4:6, 7:5, 2:6. Before this, the tennis players met each other 17 times: ten matches ended in victory for Sabalenka, seven for Rybakina.
At the same time, Rybakina retains the advantage in the final matches: she now has five of the six decisive matches against Sabalenka.
Even before the final, as RTVI reported, Rybakina guaranteed herself the status of the first racket of the world thanks to a strong-willed victory in the quarterfinals over the Chinese Zheng Qingwen with a score of 3:6, 6:1, 6:4. Sabalenka previously held the top spot in the world rankings for a record 99 weeks in a row.
