Konstantin Koltsov, former professional ice hockey player and partner of tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, has died at the age of 42, according to a statement from the Russian club Salavat Yulaev.
Koltsov represented Belarus at the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics and also spent three seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Pittsburgh Penguins between 2002 and 2006. He worked as a coach at Salavat Yulaev, where he played part of his career as an athlete, winning the team’s first title in the Russian championship in 2008.
“It is with deep regret that we inform you that Salavat Yulaev’s coach, Konstantin Koltsov, has passed away,” the club said in a statement on Tuesday (19).
“He was a strong and cheerful person, he was loved and respected by players, colleagues, fans. Konstantin wrote his name forever in the history of our club.”
No cause of Koltsov’s death has been announced. He regularly traveled to tennis tournaments around the world with Sabalenka, who won her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year.
In a 2021 Instagram post, Sabalenka described Koltsov as “the best man in the world” and said he “makes me happy every day.” According to People, the pair had been dating since June 2021.
The world’s number 2 tennis player lost in the fourth round of Indian Wells in California last week and is expected to compete in the upcoming Miami Open later this week.
(CNN’s Sergey Gudkov contributed to this report)
This content was originally created in International.
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