Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy took shots at reigning and two-time defending US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka over a snub for his content machine.
Portnoy, 49, revealed in a post to X that he was ‘not a huge tennis guy’ but once was close to the Belarusian star.
‘I’ve bet [tennis] a couple times. I was a big Sabalenka guy,’ Portnoy posted to his social media account.
‘Sabalenka invited me to sit in her box for the U.S. Open against Coco [Gauff] before anybody f***ing knew who she was.
‘And then I asked her to do a pizza review and she’s like ‘Yes. Yes, yes.’ And then she got whooshed up into David Grutman in Hollywood and blew me off. So, she was dead to me.’
Sabalenka, who was the No. 2 tennis player in the world at the time Portnoy sat in her player’s box for the 2023 US Open Final, lost that match to Gauff – but moved up to the No. 1 ranking shortly after.
Dave Portnoy says tennis star Aryna Sabalenka is ‘dead to me’ after she spurned him
Portnoy was in Sabalenka’s box for the US Open final in 2023, where she lost to Coco Gauff
Portnoy and Sabalenka even linked up at a nightclub and shared this photo months after
Despite Portnoy’s claim that she was ‘dead to me,’ images emerged of the two of them partying in Miami months later.
Portnoy even posted a snap of them at the time with the caption, ‘The Queen of Tennis @SabalenkaA.’
The Barstool president posted multiple images and videos of Sabalenka during her run that year, even sharing bets he placed on her success.
But since the pizza invite fell through, it appears the relationship has soured – especially after Sabalenka and Grutman, a hospitality entrepreneur behind the LIV nightclub in Miami, grew closer.
Grutman hosted a controversial welcome party for this year’s US Open, sponsored by DraftKings, which Sabalenka attended alongside fellow tennis stars like Serena Williams, Taylor Fritz, Gauff, Alex Eala and more.
The revelation of Portnoy’s beef with Sabalenka came in a larger rant about the lateness of Ben Shelton’s five-set thriller over Carlos Alcaraz that went until 3:33am ET on Wednesday morning.
‘What is the U.S. Open doing having matches end at 3:30 in the morning? How dumb are you?’ he said.
‘Like what are you doing? 3:30 in the morning? I’ve had this rant in years past. Only the Blutmans [Barstool staffer Liam Blutman] are up and it’s a huge match. It’s Alcatraz losing to Trinity Rodman’s boyfriend, Blake [Ben] Shelton.
Portnoy’s rant about Sabalenka came amid another tirade about the lateness of Tuesday evening’s men’s singles quarterfinal match between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz
Sabalenka, meanwhile, is off to the semifinals where she will take on Jessica Pegula
‘That is a huge f***ing match. I’m not a tennis person but last night, if that’s on at a reasonable hour, which nowadays for me is like 7:30 p.m., I’m watching that. But 3:30 a.m.? Who is watching that besides the Blutmans?’
Portnoy openly suggested the only way fans in the stadium could’ve stayed up for the nearly four-and-a-half hour match was by taking drugs.
‘Like, what are they doing? How are you awake? It’s so crazy,’ he said. ‘Who is running the U.S. Open that you’re starting matches at like midnight or one in the morning?
‘What are you doing? How stupid are some people? What is the advantage in that? 3:30 in the morning? You got to have rocks in your head.’
Sabalenka is off to the semifinals of the final Grand Slam of the year and will take on American star Jessica Pegula on Thursday.
