Aryna Sabalenka criticised for ‘poor form’ after US Open final – ‘She had the nerve to be cranky’
Aryna Sabalenka’s actions during and after her US Open final defeat to Elena Rybakina have not gone down well with the tennis community as she has been criticised for “being cranky”.
It has been a tough couple of days for Sabalenka as she lost her No 1 ranking to Rybakina on Wednesday and three days later her run as US Open champion came to an end as the Kazakh denied her a three-peat in New York with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory.
The four-time Grand Slam winner did not lose gracefully as she threw her racket in the air moments after Rybakina served an ace to win the title, but that was not the end of the meltdown.
After the traditional post-match handshake at the net and with Rybakina celebrating in the background, Sabalenka returned to her bench and smashed her racket before tossing it to the ground.
The US Open commentator was unimpressed as he stated: “Poor form from Sabalenka there, Rybakina played a terrific final. [Sabalenka] had the nerve to be cranky. This woman [Rybakina] played unbelievably well.”
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And that was not the end of her emotions boiling after as, while sitting on her bench with members of her team as they waited for the post-match presentation ceremony to start, Sabalenka was seen telling a cameraman, who came too close to her, to “f*** off”.
But it wasn’t just her antics after the match that came under fire as she also lost her cool during the match as she smashed a ball into the crowd during the first set while she came close to qualification as another ball came close to striking a cameraman on the back of the court.
During her post-match press conference, she defended her attitude, saying: “It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in a final of a Grand Slam and when you were trying to go for a three-peat.
“If I were to hold it inside, right now or on the court I wouldn’t be able to say a word. I would go not really be nice over there. I wanted to let go of all that aggression and disappointment outside.”
Sabalenka, though, also saw her glass as half full as she believes there were plenty of positives as she fired a warning to the rest of the tour.
“I think overall I should be happy with the level I played, and there’s lots of things to take from this tournament,” the outgoing world No 1 said.
“Experience shows that I only come back stronger and all of these lessons this season definitely already made me stronger, but definitely going to motivate me for the next year to do better job.”
