{"id":216946,"date":"2025-10-16T04:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216946\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T04:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:45:08","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-speaks-after-ball-boy-racquet-toss-at-wuhan-open-not-a-good-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216946\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka speaks after ball boy racquet toss at Wuhan Open, ‘not a good example’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following criticism for nearly hitting a ball boy with her racquet during her semi-final defeat to Jessica Pegula at the Wuhan Open, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> said she’s trying to be a “good example” for the younger generation of players “most of the time.”<\/p>\n

The world No.1 had led the final set in Wuhan 5-2, before Pegula staged a comeback to lead 6-5.<\/p>\n

When the American broke Sabalenka’s serve in the 11th game, the Belarusian threw her racquet at the side of the court in frustration. It narrowly missed a ball boy when it hit a bench and rebounded back towards the net. <\/p>\n

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She received a a warning but no other sanction.<\/p>\n

“For me, tennis became something much bigger when I lost my father,” Sabalenka told the AFP at an event in Hong Kong. “Now I just want to see how far I can go in this sport and inspire the next generation.<\/p>\n

“I want to be a good example, maybe. Sometimes I’m not a good example. But maybe also an example of what not to do,” she added.<\/p>\n

“Most of the time, I’m trying to be a good example for the next generation, and that’s what inspires me.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka apologises on court for throwing her racquet.\u00a0X<\/p>\n

Sabalenka’s behaviour also came under the microscope at Roland Garros earlier this year, following her loss in the final to Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

The world No.1 initially dismissed the American’s performance in both her on-court interview and her post-match news conference.<\/p>\n

“(Coco) won the match not because she played incredible,” Sabalenka told reporters, “just because I made all of those mistakes.”<\/p>\n

She later apologised for her comments, and stated she reached out to Gauff to clear the air.<\/p>\n

“That was just completely unprofessional of me,” Sabalenka said. “I let my emotions get the better of me. I absolutely regret what I said back then.<\/p>\n

“We all make mistakes. I’m only human and I’m still learning in life. We all have those days when we lose control.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following criticism for nearly hitting a ball boy with her racquet during her semi-final defeat to Jessica Pegula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-216946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}