US OPEN

September 5, 2025

Anton Dubrov

Jason Stacy

Max Mirnyi

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congrats on a great match last night, great win for Aryna. So much has been made on her serve and the biomechanics coaching and all that, but so much of her seems to be her perspective that she's gotten both on the court and off the court. I wondered if maybe the three of you would weigh in on how valuable that's been to her success.

ANTON DUBROV: I didn't get the question.

Q. She's talked about how she's found balance both on the court and off, and that's helped her with her results too. I wondered if you would talk about just that part, having been around her.

ANTON DUBROV: I think it's good for everyone to find this kind of the balance between the job and, like, life, this work-life balance stuff. This helps a lot, because you feel kind of more confident and safe on the court. Because most of the time I think athletes wear the faces that if they lose, they think that they are doing everything, like, wrong outside of the court.

So to find this kind of understanding that you're, like, different person outside of the court, on the court it's kind of your job. You're, like, you're working here. You are athlete.

Yes, it's big part of your life, but at the same time, it's also, like, life outside, and enjoy the sport is helping you also to do your job better. So I think it's really helpful for everyone. I think it's really helped Aryna to be more calm and maintains this kind of stress level on the court.

Q. Anyone else want to weigh in?

JASON STACY: That's a really big question, actually. I don't know.

ANTON DUBROV: When I was 4...

JASON STACY: When I was 4... (laughter).

I think Anton is right. A lot of it is -- you asked the question, okay, there seemed to be a lot of attention from the outside what about her mechanics, which we revisited a couple of years ago, but overall, performance is about a lot of layers. There's a lot of different things.

It is skill set, it's mechanics, but there's also, you know, there's this emotional side, there's this personal side. I think what's happened is that we got up and sustained a pretty high level for quite a long time, and then we had that one year where her serve really got messed up, which we knew for years there were some technical things we had to work on.

At that point we climbed the ladder, stayed there pretty well, but didn't really break through the top, top, top. So we took a few steps back, revisited some technical issues. She spent some time practicing those things, starting to understand those things. Us, as a team, had a better clear understanding of those technical things.

But really what mattered in the end is, first, being aware what those technical things are, and then for her to go out there and perform and practice and make it her own, to feel right so she understands it, so she trusts it, so she doesn't have to think about it.

The other part is just as we're always revisiting how you manage your emotions and the environment of who is around her. So I think the biggest part really is having the right people around that you know that you can just relay on. You understand how they communicate. We all communicate really well with each other. We're all clear on what needs to happen before it even needs to come up and be discussed half the time.

And for her, which I think we saw a little bit last night, as everyone knows, she's quite an emotional player and an emotional person. How she feels is going to determine what direction she's going to go in.

As she's becoming more mature and more experienced, she's starting to understand that she has to learn how to manage those things and how to control those things.

Sometimes she has this internal battle of how to keep that tiger under control but let it free at the same time. So there's this constant sort of -- there's a battle that she's revisiting, revisiting.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know where to go, because that's a very big question.

ANTON DUBROV: He can talk for, like, hours.

JASON STACY: I can talk all day. (Laughter.) I have so many layers here.

ANTON DUBROV: More specific questions, otherwise...

JASON STACY: I get excited, okay, you know (laughing)?

Q. Two questions, actually: One technical and one sort of psychological. The technical one is, did you guys determine that she kind of graduated from Gavin and so that's why he became free? The second question is, will you talk about the elephant in the room today much, which is about sort of losses in big matches this year? Which is a great thing, because she's in so many big matches, but she hasn't gotten the one that she really wants. Sort of those two questions.

JASON STACY: Just really quick, I'll jump on the second question. We keep saying every time we have a talk with everybody is that since the beginning of time, when I was 4 -- no. (Laughing.)

Since Anton and I started with her, the goal always has been is we work on what we need to work on right now. When she owns that level, then we start to add another layer. When she really understands and owns that level, we add another layer. That's all we've been doing over the years.

Even if you look at numbers and stats, you see it's been a steady process for us. Where we are right now is at that point where her skill level, her emotional control level, her understanding of the game is at that level where we can pretty much count on she's going to be in the end of every tournament. Whenever we decide to show up, she's going to be in the finals or very near that.

What we're doing now is trying to fine-tune how we communicate, how she understands the bigger picture and understands herself a bit deeper to win more of those finals.

So right now we're okay. No one is freaking out. We're getting there. We're very consistent, as you guys can see. We're very, very consistent. We're going to get to the end. We're going to get to the finals. What we're working on right now is fine-tuning a few little bits and pieces to make sure we win more of those.

I think this is just the level we are right now, which is great. It's a great place to be. You know what I mean? That would be the first part of the second question.

You want to jump in there, Max?

ANTON DUBROV: Yeah.

MAX MIRNYI: I'm just the...

JASON STACY: Sometimes we get too excited.

MAX MIRNYI: The scale is balancing properly (laughing).

Q. Dangerous place to be.

MAX MIRNYI: Might be, huh?

ANTON DUBROV: About the technical part, I think, first of all, Gavin made a huge influence, I think, and changed, like, a lot in Aryna career.

JASON STACY: Technically speaking.

ANTON DUBROV: Technically speaking, especially. There was a huge, I think, knowledge for everyone around, we're and really thankful for this.

But I think, like, it worked for three years?

JASON STACY: Two and a bit, yeah.

ANTON DUBROV: Yeah, kind of three years. So I think at some point it just started like you're kind of hearing the same voice all the time. It's the same as with me. That's why we have the conversation with Aryna. Like, do I have any kind of still value for you, or this way I always searching for someone, like, who can help us. That's why I ask Max to join us, to help us, so it's a new voice.

I think it has to be like this, especially in the specific areas like technical part. It's, like, never-ending, but at the same time, if you take everything from the person that he can give you, you have to manage by yourself and move on. So I think we were in the point when we got as most as we can, and for Aryna it was about her responsibility right now to take it and have a next step. That's I think and I hope that Max going to bring to us that we can improve and do even better.

So I think it was just, like, absolutely kind of normal routine just to move on. I remember, like I talked with Darren Cahill about it, like it's usually, for tennis coaches, usually like a three years' period, because then the athlete is just listening for you. He knows what you're going to say. You know what he's going to be, like, responding, she's going to respond to you.

That's why for me it's kind of like I'm working for five years. That's why I'm always asking Aryna, like, What we can do, because it's pretty normal to move on to find someone else.

As she said, she's feeling kind of safe with me overall how the environment is move on. That's why I try to, as Jason said, to add a new layer. For me the new layer is, like, a new voice, a new experience. That's about the first question.

Second question was about? Sorry, I forget.

Q. Jason sort of addressed it, so you can --

JASON STACY: Just closing out more finals versus --

ANTON DUBROV: Yeah, just like is about I think you don't have not to speak about. You have to talk about it, because it's pretty like everyone knows about it. It's more about, okay, yeah, it's happened. Do you know why? If you know why, just what is going to be a solution? What is next step?

Even after this, you have to understand there's no guarantee. Even if you think you can solve the problem, it doesn't mean you solve it straightaway. There is no guarantee. You need to have the keys, fight, and then let's see if this was the right thing for you or not, and that's it.

Q. Jason, you hit on this a little bit in general earlier. Last night Aryna spoke about feeling a lot of emotions on the court, because it felt like she was really eager to employ a lot of the lessons that maybe she's learned over the last couple of months. I'm curious what specifically some of those lessons were? And also, I'm also wondering what the regrouping process was like after Roland Garros? Because I have to think that what happened in that final was maybe a bit of a shock for the team and for Aryna, as well.

ANTON DUBROV: It wasn't a shock (laughing).

You want to jump in? You go first.

JASON STACY: You go ahead. You know I get excited.

ANTON DUBROV: No, you go first. I have to think.

JASON STACY: All right. Max, your turn.

MAX MIRNYI: All right, my turn.

JASON STACY: Go ahead. No pressure, man.

MAX MIRNYI: Being an observer from the outside for many years, even though I was, as many of you, just watching and observing from the outside, I was in pretty close contact with the boys.

I've known Jason for a long time and when he was on tour with the ATP players, and I was always in contact with Anton and Andrei as my Davis Cup teammates and then as part of the coaching team for Aryna.

So I was getting some sort of an inside scoop on how things roll, and I was very much aware of the very quick and determined rise to the top, but at the same time, the resistance that Aryna and the team were facing already being on top. Going through the tournaments in Melbourne and Paris this year, in London, we spoke briefly.

Obviously the expectations are very high for themselves and the expectation Aryna puts on herself. This is normal progression. It's natural to have.

We are here to embrace that in her and maybe remind once again the plaque that we get in front of getting out onto the Ashe Court, that "Pressure is a Privilege," and what Billie Jean King says after that. She says, "Champions adapt."

Aryna has shown to the world that she's a great champion. One more time we will remind her that the situation she's in today, dealing with this big match, is a big privilege to have. She's been a great champion, and champions adapt, as Billie Jean King says.

There's not much to say. She's got plenty of tools. Me entering the team is just maybe -- it's a delicate mission, because if I can only add one or two extra tools in her toolbox that she can operate with, I would consider my mission complete.

Other than that, she's got a full force going for her. She just needs to remind herself that pressure is a privilege, and she's a champion that will adjust.

JASON STACY: Can I add about the second part of the question about that Roland Garros part? I think what's important for the bigger picture, too, is that regrouping, that wasn't really regrouping.

The best part that I would say from Roland Garros that I found was that Aryna initiating some conversation about trying to understand why she was feeling this and what she could do about it.

She even started reading a certain book on her own. It all just kind of came together. For us that was a really nice thing that she started to actually initiate wanting to, like, figure some things out, talk about it, get things out of her head. Because before she would have a habit of keeping it to herself until it becomes something bigger. That was pretty impressive to see.

The last thing I'll add is it's been wonderful having Max here because of his approach, the way he speaks. It's not just technically he comes with a lot of experience of being on the big stages, knowing how it feels. So I think just there's a lot of really good connection overall with the team and the way Max's approach is. I think it's been very helpful. It's not just the technique-type thing or just one, two, certain specific or isolated things.

He has a really good understanding how to communicate and how we all three are communicating really well together. You even feel -- even Aryna, I think she's starting to -- even if she's not feeling something, she's trusting it, where before she would have to feel it to trust it. That's been a really cool sort of progression, I would say.

Q. What was she reading?

JASON STACY: I forget. I can find out for you later. It was a fairy tale thing. It was cool. It was cool. It was very relatable, though, relevant to the situation.

Q. Max, I just wondered, from your perspective, kind of if you had particular focuses since joining, and what sort of surprised you about working so closely with Aryna?

MAX MIRNYI: Not to disclose any of the secrets, but you know, one of my main starting lines entering the team and speaking sometimes to Aryna directly is relaying the message that there's no such thing as a perfect tennis match. There's no such thing as a perfection on a tennis court.

You can take the best matches of Djokovic and Federer or Steffi Graf, if you still remember her, there will always be some things that didn't go according to plan, and they're the better champions that know how to respond and adjust on the moment, on the go.

You know, no matter how good the player is, with Aryna, everybody knows her dominance and force and powerful playing. There's so many things, like a painter painting. There are so many things that could go one way or the other that you can just adjust and enhance her game in many different ways. It's a progression that needs to happen simultaneously with the coaching team as well as the player.

The player needs to be on it before attempting to adjust anything within her or his game. So it's a very delicate process.

Again, nothing something that needs to be tinkered during big tournaments like this one, but hopefully we have some time that Aryna is going to be willing to put her head down and work on some things outside of the tournament environment.

Who knows, maybe we'll see some new elements to her game.

Q. Congrats on your success so far. I wanted to know from Max, how are you doing? I read you defeated malignant brain tumor, and how does it feel to be now the fresh ingredient in this powerhouse team?

MAX MIRNYI: Well, it's something that I didn't really speak about publicly, but that whole news malignant came out when I was released from the hospital where the surgery was performed.

To be on the safer side, they put it down as a malignant to go under the most intensive care, because they couldn't classify the tumor. After having arrived to this country, because the surgery was in Belarus, my tissue went through three or four different laboratories, which they also couldn't classify what it was.

So now the treatment is completed. The whole of '24 I underwent the protocol procedure for the most aggressive ones. Luckily, everything is stable now, so I feel good and grateful to God that I'm here and have a chance to be at the US Open.