Victoria Azarenka was irritated by a tweet from the Tennis Channel that put a spotlight on a handshake between her and Jelena Ostapenko at the 2024 Brisbane International.
Azarenka and Ostapenko had a very tight battle in their quarterfinal in Brisbane. The match had many twists and turns, before the Belarusian eventually prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 after a great contest for the fans in the Pat Rafter Arena.
The two-time Grand Slam champion is known for many positive things. An example is Azarenka inspiring other mothers by showing what is possible. She would be happy for stories like that to be in the headlines.
Unfortunately, headlines were instead created by Ostapenko's handshake with Azarenka. It was a very short one, with the Latvian clearly looking to leave the court as quickly as possible after a disappointing loss.
However, it was not Azarenka that angered Ostapenko. It was the umpire. The former French Open champion felt that a call went against her, and blasted the umpire as blind, vowing to never allow her to umpire another one of her matches.
The Tennis Channel X page put out a tweet of the handshake, clearly implying it was for those who were only interested in the handshake and not the match. But Azarenka was not impressed and responded with a tweet of her own.
"There is an actual crowd like that? Sad.... what an embarrassing post."
The X page for the Tennis Channel clearly took Azarenka's words to heart. It swiftly deleted the ill-advised tweet, amid much support on the social media platform for Azarenka's tweet in response.
The two-time Grand Slam champion effectively got her point across. She can now focus on her great start to the season, with pre-season practices alongside Jessica Pegula seeming to have worked a treat for the Belarusian.
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