During the Wuhan Open semi-final match against Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka lost her patience with ball kids. Despite winning against the in-form Coco Gaff, Sabalenka found herself in hot water due to her perceived rude behavior towards the ball kid.
As expected, the incident went viral on multiple social media platforms, eliciting a plethora of reactions from fans online. While some tennis enthusiasts seemed to be quite sympathetic towards the entire situation, the majority of the viewers were unimpressed and even called Sabalenka’s behavior ‘disgusting’.
The incident took place during the third set when Sabalenka was having the upper hand. As she was in her perfect momentum, she urged the ball kid to hurry up.
There is no denying that that crowd was visibly shocked to see this side of the US Open champion, especially when she is known for having a rather cheerful personality. Consequently, she even faced boos from the audience and a lot of backlashes and criticism online.
While expressing their disappointment, one fan wrote, “Very rude behavior from Sabalenka towards the ball kids. She got booed for it and deservedly so.”
Another user wrote, “No need to delete it needs to be called out. Someone else was horrible to a ball kid at the US open this year, and it was rightly called out. It should be called out. They are kids.“
However, not all the comments were pointing fingers towards the World No. 2. Some fans also blamed the lack of training for the ball kids as they justified the frustration that Sabalenka displayed on the court.
One social media user wrote, “Sorry, but these ballkids in China this year are terribly trained, both here and in Shanghai, maybe they could invest some money they put in luring WTA and ATP to run these tournaments there into proper training of their staff.”
Another user wrote, “Those kids are not properly trained. There’s been complaints from multiple players. SHE WON! she’s human.”
Aryna Sabalenka scripts history at Wuhan Open
The World No. 2 has done it again, and this time she has script history. Aryna Sabalenka becomes the first player ever to win Wuhan Open tree time in a row. After beating Coco Gauff in the semifinal, the US Open champion shook off a second set blip to win against home favorite Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the finals.
That’s not all; the Belarusian now has the most aces in WTA 1000 this season, surpassing fan-favorite Elena Rybakina. With that being said, it seems like Sabalenka is all set to climb up the ladder to once again claim the World No. 1 position.
Now that she has qualified for the season-ending WTA finals alongside current World No. 1 and French Open champion Iga Swiatek (also known as Queen of Clay), it will be interesting to see whether Swiatek can retain her throne.