{"id":203106,"date":"2025-10-16T01:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T01:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/203106\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T01:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T01:26:08","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-aims-to-be-good-example-in-tennis-after-racket-throw-at-wuhan-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/203106\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka aims to be \u2018good example\u2019 in tennis after racket throw at Wuhan Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being criticized for nearly hitting a ball kid with her tennis racket during her semifinal defeat to Jessica Pegula at the Wuhan Open<\/a>\u00a0Saturday, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> spoke about her desire to be a \u201cgood example\u201d to young tennis players, and acknowledged her sometimes falling short.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, tennis became something much bigger when I lost my father,\u201d Sabalenka\u00a0told the AFP at an event in Hong Kong. \u201cNow I just want to see how far I can go in this sport and inspire the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a good example, maybe. Sometimes I\u2019m not a good example. But maybe also an example of what not to do,\u201d Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, I\u2019m trying to be a good example for the next generation, and that\u2019s what inspires me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world No. 1 had led the final set in Wuhan 5-2, before Pegula of the U.S. stormed back to lead 6-5. When the American broke Sabalenka\u2019s serve in the 11th game, Sabalenka hurled her racket at the side of the court in frustration. It struck a bench and rebounded back toward the net, narrowly missing the ball kid standing close by. Sabalenka received a warning for racket abuse from the chair umpire, but no further punishment.<\/p>\n

A representative for Sabalenka did not respond to a request for comment on the incident from\u00a0The Athletic.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka managed to win the next game to force a deciding tiebreak, but Pegula took it to win the match 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(2), ending two remarkable Sabalenka streaks in the process. The world No. 1 had won 19 consecutive tiebreaks, and had also won 20 Wuhan Open matches in a row.<\/p>\n

Pegula\u2019s run ended in the final, where she fell to Coco Gauff 6-4, 7-5. Gauff was at the center of another controversy surrounding Sabalenka<\/a> earlier this year at the French Open. After losing to Gauff in the final, Sabalenka initially dismissed her opponent\u2019s role in the match in both her on-court interview and her post-match news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Coco) won the match not because she played incredible,\u201d Sabalenka told reporters, \u201cjust because I made all of those mistakes.\u201d On-court, she had lamented her \u201cterrible tennis\u201d and blamed the windy conditions in Paris.<\/p>\n

She later apologized for her comments, telling Eurosport Germany that she reached out to Gauff personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just completely unprofessional of me,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI let my emotions get the better of me. I absolutely regret what I said back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all make mistakes. I\u2019m only human and I\u2019m still learning in life. We all have those days when we lose control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka, who has been a dominant force since becoming world No. 1 for the second time in the fall last year, has four Grand Slam titles to her name. She claimed back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2023 and 2024, achieving the same feat at the U.S. Open in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being criticized for nearly hitting a ball kid with her tennis racket during her semifinal defeat to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-203106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}