Heartbroken Timea Babos hits out at ‘injustice’ after Kristina Mladenovic’s US Open expulsion
Timea Babos has lashed out after an “opportunity to raise a Grand Slam trophy” was taken away from her and Kristina Mladenovic.
The reigning Australian Open champions were favourites to lift the US Open title as they were top seeds, but their campaign came to an abrupt end before their second-round match.
The duo’s clash against Gabriela Dabrowski and Alison Riske was removed from the order of play and it later emerged that Mladenovic was withdrawn from the tournament and told to quarantine in her hotel room.
US Open drama as Kristina Mladenovic gets withdrawn from doubles after order to quarantine
The move came after the Frenchwoman came into contact with compatriot Benoit Paire, who tested positive for coronavirus in the build-up to the US Open.
However, there have been reports that Paire tested negative for Covid-19 shortly after the first result while Mladenovic has tested negative on several occasions.
Hungarian Babos took to Instagram to express some of her views on the debacle.
“I got home. I’m sitting here in my kitchen and crying…” she wrote.
“I haven’t really had time for anything so far, so now I’m just starting to realise what happened and I just don’t understand. It’s terribly unfair all over, I don’t see any acceptable reason why this should have been the case.
“Let’s look at the facts:
“Benoit Paire’s PCR test was positive for about 10 days (after 4negative), but has received negative results in recent days. Other people close to him have never had a positive test. For me 4, while for Kik 11, I say 11 again !!! had a negative Covid19 test. Yet we were excluded. We were disqualified with everyone playing all their matches, only we were left in the race. They were already vacillating on Friday to let Mannarin play, he was let that day, not us the next day.
“Simple injustice! Incomprehensible! It’s not fair and I could list more.
“First highlights at a Grand Slam tournament. I’ve been thinking a lot about whether to travel or not, I had a lot of question marks. But I’m an athlete, I wanted to compete. Anyway, I always go to/win the competition and honestly admit that we always have a good chance. They took the opportunity to raise a GS trophy, not to mention material and mental damage! But why? I don’t know, I don’t understand … I really don’t …”
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