Lesia Tsurenko was on the receiving end of a brutal scoreline at the Australian Open, losing 6-0, 6-0, at the hands of defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.
No matter how bad a player's performance is, not managing to post a single game on the board is as ignominious as it can get, and every player who has been in such a quandary will try as much as possible to forget about it.
For Tsurenko, it was 52 minutes of pure torture. But if she were to equate it to the barrage of hateful messages she received after the match, then she would probably take comfort in being on the court. Tsurenko revealed that many people were "happy" that she lost.
Tsurenko did not shake hands with Sabalenka, which is now a norm for Ukrainian athletes facing those from Russia and Belarus. But as the cameras panned out at the veteran, she could be seen acknowledging Sabalenka with a polite wave.
Sabalenka appreciated Tsurenko's gesture and even told reporters she was "respectful" after the match despite being subject to vile attacks from infuriated tennis trolls.
The 34-year-old Ukrainian dedicated an entire post on X (formerly Twitter) to document details of a personal affliction in the wake of haters berating her for her court actions for preserving the common stance that Ukrainian athletes have stood by since their country was invaded by Russia almost two years ago.
"I noticed that my loss yesterday made a lot of people happy. So my new post is for you. Please feel free to express whatever you want to me. I hope this will make you happy for a little bit longer."
"But you know, on the eve of the new year, my friend returned from Russian captivity after 1.5 years. Lost 55 kilograms of body weight and with an infection in his legs, but the main thing is that he is alive. This is real happiness."
"So I hope that you will also have real reasons to feel happy in your life and not because of the loss of some random tennis player whom you have never even met in your life."
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