When politics is always at play
Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko withdrew from a match against Belarus’s Aryna Sabalenka at last year’s Indian Wells Masters because of a panic attack. At Melbourne Park she got double bagelled.
Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko withdrew from a match against Belarus’s Aryna Sabalenka at last year’s Indian Wells Masters because of a panic attack.
The WTA cited “personal reasons” before Tsurenko revealed the truth. She was reeling from a meeting with the governing body’s boss Steve Simon about the bitter stand-off between Ukrainian, Russian and Belarussian players.
“I was absolutely shocked by what I heard. I just broke down mentally,” Tsurenko said.
“He told me that he himself does not support the war, but if the players from Russia and Belarus support it, then this is their own opinion, and the opinion of other people should not upset me. It was difficult to gather myself and today when it was time to go on the court. I had a panic attack and just couldn’t go out there. I really hope that I will be able to digest all this information and be more ready for the next tournament.”
Tsurenko’s forfeit came when Ukraine players were angry at the Russians and Belarussians for saying little to denounce the war. Sabalenka felt trapped. Of course she hated the conflict and yet life might become complicated if she spoke out against her government. All she could really say was, “What do you want me to say?” The defending Australian champion is still competing under a neutral flag at Melbourne Park – where she faced Tsurenko in the third round on Friday. There was no guarantee her opponent would make it on to Rod Laver Arena … or shake her hand.
Sabalenka won 6-0 6-0. Gave her a couple of doughnuts, bagels. I suspect she’d give her a hug. I doubt Tsurenko would accept it. We understand the sensitivities and yet I think it’s unfair for Sabalenka to be embarrassed like this. She didn’t invade Ukraine. She didn’t start the war. She can do nothing to stop it.
All she can do is what she did on Friday. Play hard, applaud her opponents’ good shots, offer her hand to be shaken. Tsurenko declined. I thought it was pointless and unsporting. Using Sabalenka to make a political statement. It served no real purpose. The war continued. How to promote peace and love? Give some.
To be fair, it was a polite rejection. Tsurenko put a palm in the air to tell Sabalenko to back off. Then she mouthed a compliment across the net.
“This situation has been happening for a long time on tour and I understand everyone’s position,” Sabalenka said. “I respect everyone’s position. She was quite respectful. She said, “Great play. She didn’t shake my hand but she was respectful to me. So I appreciate that. I’m happy Lesia is healthy and back.”
Love-and-love. Bagel-and-bagel. Doughnut-and-doughnut. Sabalenka’s old perfectionist streak shone through at 6-0 5-0. She missed a backhand passing shot and admonished herself as if the match hung in the balance. She admitted to being a recovering perfectionist.
“I’ve been like that from when I was young,” she said. “But right now I’m not trying to be perfect. I’m trying to do my job as good as I can. I think today’s performance was really - yeah, was perfection. I’m happy with the level I played but I’m trying to keep it simple and not try to make it perfect. Because as soon as you start trying to make it perfect, everything goes wrong. I’m trying to be happy with what I have right now.”
Tsurenko’s no plodder. She’s the world No.28. Which made the bagels and doughnuts such a shock. The first love-and-love scoreline since Ash Barty thrashed Danka Kovinic in 2021. Sabalenka went from her 52-minute match straight to the indoor practice courts. Didn’t get changed. Just kept hitting balls in the same clothes she wore on RLA. You could’ve sworn she was trying to be perfect.
Tsurenko said of the handshake that didn’t happen: “It’s an emotional position. If you want, I can try to explain how it feels. It is probably tough to explain if you are not part of the country that’s in war right now. I think this is really a right thing to do. It was just another reminder about the fact there is a war in my country. It is very tough to explain.
“You just have to feel what I feel and you will not have this question.
“If you can just imagine my place, or that of any other Ukrainian … I do this for Ukraine and I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Sabalenka progressed to a fourth-round match against American Amanda Anisimova. She spent Friday evening watching the scores tick over between Russia’s Anna Blinkova and Kazakhstan’s third-seeded Elena Rybakina. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten – that’s how many match points Blinkova needed to win 6-4 4-6 7-6 (22/20). “I was like, Wow,” she said. “How far are these girls gonna go?”
Twenty-two to 20! A 42-point tiebreaker! It lasted 33 minutes. The longest tiebreaker in women’s majors history.
Blinkova returns on Saturday against 26th-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini.
“Before the match, I was telling myself that I’m going there to enjoy,” she said of the marathon against Rybakina. “It was my dream to play on the Rod Laver Arena. I was preparing myself to only have positive emotions on the court, no matter how the match goes. I was telling myself that I only had to give my best until the very last moment and enjoy every single moment of it. Of course, it was difficult to always stay positive. I had a lot of great moments but I also had many frustrating moments. For example, all the match points that I couldn’t convert. ”
Take a deep breath and count to 10 match points. She’s another perfectionist try to perfect the noble art of imperfection.
“I used to never be happy with how I play,” she said. “For example, if I win the point not in the way that I want, not with a beautiful shot, I was not happy with that. Any point that I win is a good point. Any shot that I put in the court is a good shot. That’s what I tell myself. I’ve been doing a lot of mental work to not panic, to stay calm, to breathe, to not be frustrated after mistakes.
“I always tell myself that everybody does mistakes, it’s normal.
“I had a lot of motivation to win this match. One of my motivations was to simply stay here.
“I was telling myself that I will fight to stay here longer at the Australian Open in the best atmosphere in the world.
“ This day I will remember for the rest of my life. This court, this crowd, I will never forget it. It’s the best day of my life so far.”
It might be an endless tournament. Five-setters and three-setters were everywhere until a flurry of doughnuts and bagels on Friday. Great stuff for the winners. Spare a thought for the losers.
Rybakina was gorgeously gracious. She gave Blinkova a hug then departed Melbourne Park with a shrug. “I was a bit unlucky,” she said.
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