WTA Finals: Ukraine accuses Sabalenka, 'she offended Svitolina'

The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka ended up in the crosshairs of the Ukrainian tennis federation, which posted a video on social media according to which she allegedly directed insults on the court at the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who beat her and eliminated her from the WTA Finals underway in Indian Wells. The audio is not clear, but according to the interpretation proposed by the lip reading, Sabalenka in Russian would have said "Those f...Ukrainians, for heaven's sake" or worse "that f...ing Ukrainian bitch, for heaven's sake". Harsh words, if confirmed, which have raised a storm on social media but which have not found official confirmation.

Svitolina herself, who also did not shake hands with her rival as often happens when Ukrainian and Russian or Belarusian players compete, did not make any mention of insulting behavior on the part of her rival after the match.

A few days ago, Sabalenka herself was the subject of a vulgar comment by a journalist from a French broadcaster who, while commenting on a Finals match, thinking of speaking with the microphone off, said of her "look, look, she's horrible". Many rightly took the tennis player's defense and a TV manager apologized, with the Belarusian not commenting or reacting.