Aryna Sabalenka has issued an apology for winning the Australian Open final.
The all-conquering tennis star felt compelled to send a message to Chinese fans after beating their very own Qinwen Zheng in a one-sided demolition in Melbourne.
‘Hi guys, here I am with the trophy. I am so sorry, I know you all support Qinwen, I understand this,’ Sabalenka said in a video posted to Chinese social media platform Weibo.
‘Anyway, thank you so much for all the support, I love playing in China, hopefully I will come back this year to China.
‘Thank you so much and see you soon,’ she finished, blowing a kiss to her fans.
After the match, a devastated Zheng paid credit to the champion.
‘Congrats to Aryna to have such a wonderful match here,’ Zheng said.
‘I didn’t perform my best. That’s a real pity for me, because I really want to show better than that.’
Sabalenka dedicated the 6-3, 6-2 win over Zheng to her family, telling them, ‘I love you so much … Everything I’m doing, I’m doing for you,’ as she held the trophy on centre court after her heartbreaking gesture.
Sabalenka revealed the ambition she and her father Sergey discussed in season one of the Netflix series Break Point.
‘I lost my father four years ago. We had one dream, that before 25 I will win a couple of grand slams,’ she said.
‘When he passed away, I started thinking too much about it. Now I’m 24 and there is zero in my pocket.’
The Belarusian world No.2 changed that when she broke through to win her first Australian Open crown by defeating Elena Rybakina last year – and broke down after the match as she remembered her father.
In scenes captured in Break Point’s second season, Sabalenka was on the phone to her mother in the locker room after the win when they started talking about her dad.
‘Mum, don’t cry, I’m starting to cry, cameras are filming me here,’ she says.
‘Mum, don’t start talking about Dad, damn it.’
