{"id":445808,"date":"2026-01-29T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445808\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:03:09","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-pissed-off-by-hindrance-call-in-semi-final-vs-elina-svitolina-reaction-to-chair-umpire-video-latest-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445808\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka pissed off by hindrance call in semi-final vs Elina Svitolina, reaction to chair umpire, video, latest tennis news"},"content":{"rendered":"

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka concedes she was \u201cpissed off\u201d when called for hindrance because of her grunting during her Australian Open semi-final win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka could not remember previously being penalised for her post-shot noise but lost a point in the opening set against Elina Svitolina when chair umpire Louise Azemar Engzell believed she made two sounds, the latter impacting Svitolina.<\/p>\n

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Sabalenka given hinderance penalty | 01:11<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go ah, ah-ya. You don\u2019t make the normal sound,\u201d Engzell explained after examining the video and upholding her call.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka later clarified whether one continuous sound was permitted and it appeared the answer was yes.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian appeared inspired by what she felt was an injustice, breaking Svitolina\u2019s serve in that game before going on to win 6-2 6-3, and admitted as much in her post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka cruises through to AO final | 01:14<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, that\u2019s actually never happened to me,\u201d Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, never happened to me, especially with my grunting, that it\u2019s, like – I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s, like, it\u2019s so off I think, and the way that, I don\u2019t know, excel, it\u2019s just because of – I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know how to explain it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just like the ball was deep. The ball was, like, the bounce was wrong, and it was just like the timing. I was excelling, and it just happened naturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen she called it, and I was, like, What? What is wrong with you?<\/p>\n

Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka reacts on a point to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina during their women’s singles semi-final match on day twelve of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 29, 2026. (Photo by Martin KEEP \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I think it was the wrong call, but whatever. She really – how do I say in a nice way? She really pissed me off, and it\u2019s actually help me and benefit my game. I was more aggressive. I was not happy with the call, and it really helped me to get that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if she ever want to do it again, like, I want to make sure that she\u2019s not afraid of it. Go ahead, call it. It\u2019s going to help me (laughter).\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is entering her fourth consecutive Australian Open final on Saturday night, with only Martina Hingis (six straight) having qualified for the decider more consecutively at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll face Elena Rybakina in the decider, a rematch of the 2023 final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka concedes she was \u201cpissed off\u201d when called for hindrance because of her grunting during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-445808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445808","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=445808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}