Sabalenka, in her most difficult week, greeted the WTA 1000 in Miami with a fit of anger: she slammed her racket against the concrete after the defeat against Kalinina

A traumatic week For Aryna Sabalenkathe number two in women’s tennis has reached her abrupt ending in the early hours of this Sunday with an unexpected defeat in the third round WTA 1000 in Miami.

The Belarusian competed in this tournament under the impact of her former partner’s death on Monday Konstantin Koltsov. Local police attributed the death of this 42-year-old former ice hockey player to “apparent suicide” jumping from the balcony of a Miami hotel room. Moved by this “unthinkable tragedy”, as she defined her loss in a message on her social networks, Sabalenka had asked not to have contact with the press.

However, he couldn’t keep his balance for long. The double champion of Australian Opendressed in black just like on his debut against the Spaniards Paola Badosahe farewelled in the third round against Ukraine Anhelina Kalininanumber 36 in the ranking, 6-4, 1-6 and 6-1, after two hours and three minutes of action on the hard court Miami Gardens.

After keeping his emotions under control in his first game, Sabalenka vented her anger after the elimination by hitting her racket violently three times against the court and leave without shaking hands with his rival, something that has already been seen several times on the circuit between Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian tennis players. This time they didn’t even exchange a glance.

On Friday, in his first public appearance after Koltsov’s death, he debuted with a straight-sets victory against Badosa, her best friend on the circuitwhich made him smile on the pitch.

The following evening, the Belarusian showed more erratic tennis and, although she managed to match the opening set won by Kalinina, she soon found herself 4-0 down in the final set and completely lost concentration until she resigned herself to elimination.

“It’s very difficult (to play) with strong nerves. But I managed to manage it in difficult moments,” said Kalinina, who will face the Kazakh in the next round. Yulia Putintseva.

The Polish Iga Swiatekworld ranking leader and recent Indian Wells winner, and the Kazakh Elena Rybakinafourth in the rankings, she emerged victorious from a day in which, in addition to Sabalenka, two other members of the top-10 of the WTA rankings dropped out, the Tunisian Hon Jabeur (6th) and the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (10th).

Source: agencies