Navratilova and Davenport reflect on Sabalenka’s hindrance call
Aryna Sabalenka eased into the Australian Open final, overpowering Elina Svitolina in straight sets.
The Belarusian controlled the match from start to finish, combining her usual power with impressive accuracy to leave little doubt about the outcome.
However, there was a moment of controversy early on when she was penalised for hindrance. The umpire called her out for an extra noise made after a grunt following a mis-hit.
Sabalenka questioned the decision, but it was upheld after a video review.
Martina Navratilova and Lindsay Davenport later discussed the incident during their coverage of what was otherwise a straightforward match.
Navratilova and Davenport weigh in on Aryna Sabalenka’s dispute with the umpire
Speaking on Tennis Channel, Navratilova didn’t mince her words, firmly stating she felt the call was unnecessary.
“No, no, it shouldn’t have been called. I don’t think it should have been called,” she said.
Davenport took a slightly different view, acknowledging past instances but suggesting a warning might have been more appropriate than an immediate penalty.
“She’s definitely done worse [than that] that’s not been called,” she noted. “I think what normally should happen is a soft warning to a player. Listen, hey, you can make sound when you’re making contact. These days, it seems like the grunting sound is now extending to when the ball has crossed the net and onto the opponent’s racket. That should not be allowed. That could be made clear.”
“It was kind of a broken-up grunt, but if they’re gonna police it, great,” Davenport continued. “There should be a warning to her beforehand, like ‘Hey listen, you can grunt, but it’s gotta stop when you make contact.’ And I think that message wasn’t maybe clearly delivered to Sabalenka. But it fired her up.”
Sabalenka echoed those feelings after the match during her press conference: “Of course [it made me angry]. I just felt like she did something wrong by calling this hindrance because there was nothing about hindrance.
I had so many of those situations in other matches where me or my opponent were screaming louder and nothing happened.”
How Aryna Sabalenka turned an umpire call into motivation
Not so long ago, a moment like this might have thrown Sabalenka off her game. But these days, she’s found a way to channel frustration into focus.
She spoke about it after the match, describing how it actually fired her up.
“It actually helped me and benefitted my game. I was more aggressive. I was not happy with the call, and it really helped me to get that game.”
She challenged the umpire during the match, even though nothing came of it. This time, instead of getting rattled, she used it to drive her performance forward.
The scoreline backed that up as she put together a confident 6-2, 6-3 win over Svitolina.
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