A
traumatic week
for
Aryna Sabalenka
, the number two in women's tennis, came to an
abrupt end
in the early hours of this Sunday with an unexpected defeat in the third round of the
WTA 1000 in Miami
.
The Belarusian competed in this tournament under the impact of the death on Monday of her ex-partner
Konstantin Koltsov
.
Local police attributed the death of this 42-year-old former ice hockey player to an
"apparent suicide"
after jumping from the balcony of a Miami hotel room.
Moved by this "unthinkable tragedy," as she defined his loss in a message on her social media,
Sabalenka had asked not to have contact with the press.
However,
he could not maintain his balance for long
.
The double champion of the
Australian Open
, who dressed in black as in her debut against the Spanish
Paula Badosa
, said goodbye in the third round against the Ukrainian
Anhelina Kalinina
, number 36 in the ranking, 6-4, 1-6 and 6-1, after two hours and three minutes of action on the cement of
Miami Gardens
.
After keeping her emotions under control in her first match,
Sabalenka let out her anger after her elimination by violently smashing her racket three times against the court
and leaving without shaking her rival's hand, something that was already seen repeatedly on the tennis circuit. Ukrainian and Russian and Belarusian.
This time they didn't even exchange glances.
đđđ pic.twitter.com/BJxXnMtcQZ
â News Aryna Sabalenka (@Sabanewsss) March 24, 2024
On Friday, in her first public appearance after Koltsov's death, she had debuted with a two-set victory against Badosa,
her best friend on the circuit
, which brought a smile to her face on the court.
A night later, the Belarusian showed more irregular tennis and, although she managed to equal the initial set that Kalinina had won, she soon found herself down 4-0 in the final set and completely lost concentration until she resigned herself to elimination.
Anhelina Kalinina stretches to return a ball against Aryna Sabalenka.
Photo: AP
"It's very hard (to play) with nerves. But I managed in difficult moments to deal with it," said Kalinina, who will face Kazakh
Yulia Putintseva in the next round.
The Polish
Iga Swiatek
, leader of the world ranking and recent winner of Indian Wells, and the Kazakh
Elena Rybakina
, fourth in the classification, did emerge successfully from a day in which, in addition to Sabalenka, two other members of the top took the exit route -10 in the WTA ranking, the Tunisian
Ons Jabeur
(6th) and the Latvian
Jelena Ostapenko
(10th).
Source: agencies