{"id":281811,"date":"2023-01-28T15:39:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T15:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2023\/01\/28\/belarusian-aryna-sabalenka-crowned-first-neutral-grand-slam-champion-tennis-news-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2023-01-28T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T15:39:06","slug":"belarusian-aryna-sabalenka-crowned-first-neutral-grand-slam-champion-tennis-news-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2023\/01\/28\/belarusian-aryna-sabalenka-crowned-first-neutral-grand-slam-champion-tennis-news-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka crowned first &#8216;neutral&#8217; Grand Slam champion | Tennis News &#8211; Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-97404166,imgsize-98248.cms\" \/><\/p>\n<div>MELBOURNE: With daring, resolve and a thunderous forehand, <!-- -->Aryna Sabalenka<!-- --> rose above geopolitical tumult to become the first player to claim a <!-- -->Grand Slam<!-- --> title as a neutral at the <!-- -->Australian Open<!-- -->.<br \/>The big-hitting Belarusian overhauled <!-- -->Wimbledon<!-- --> champion <!-- -->Elena Rybakina<!-- --> 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final at <!-- -->Rod Laver Arena<!-- --> on Saturday while barred from representing the eastern European nation.<br \/>Russian and Belarusian players are effectively &#8220;stateless&#8221; on the ATP and WTA tours, competing as individuals without national affiliation due to Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Had Rybakina not switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in 2018, the Russia-born player would also have competed as a neutral.<br \/>Perhaps for the first time ever at Rod Laver Arena, the championship match was played without fans waving the national flag of the winner in the terraces.<br \/>Deemed a disruption by organisers, fans were banned from bringing Russian and Belarusian flags to Melbourne Park on the second day of the tournament after a complaint from the Ukraine embassy in Australia.<br \/>Sabalenka will not have &#8220;Belarus&#8221; next to her name on the winner&#8217;s trophy, the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.<br \/>They may have seemed mere details as the 24-year-old joyously celebrated with her team in the players&#8217; box and sipped on a glass of champagne at her post-match media conference.<br \/>But her mood darkened slightly when asked whether being a neutral player had taken something away from her triumph.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think everyone still knows that I&#8217;m Belarusian player. That&#8217;s it,&#8221; she told reporters flatly.<br \/>Sabalenka and other Belarusian and Russian players were banned from Wimbledon last year, a polarising decision that triggered heavy fines from the men&#8217;s ATP and women&#8217;s WTA tours and also saw the Grand Slam&#8217;s ranking points taken away.<br \/>With the conflict in Ukraine raging on, Wimbledon will soon need to decide whether the player ban should remain in place.<br \/>Asked whether missing Wimbledon made her Australian Open win sweeter, Sabalenka was non-committal.<br \/>&#8220;I mean, missing the Wimbledon was really tough for me. It was a tough moment for me,&#8221; she said.<br \/>&#8220;But I mean, I played the U.S. Open after. It&#8217;s not about Wimbledon right now. It&#8217;s just about the hard work I&#8217;ve done.&#8221;<br \/>The Belarus tennis federation was quick to extend congratulations to the country&#8217;s second tennis player to win a Grand Slam, following on from twice Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who was knocked out in the semi-finals.<br \/>Sabalenka thought people in Belarus would be proud of her but she had no plans to celebrate with them in the short term.<br \/>&#8220;I think I will go back to Miami. I live there right now,&#8221; she said.<\/div>\n<p><script>!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                  window.TimesApps = window.TimesApps || {};\n                  const { TimesApps } = window;\n                  TimesApps.loadFBEvents = function() {\n                    (function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                      if (f.fbq) return;\n                      n = f.fbq = function() {\n                        n.callMethod ? n.callMethod(...arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments);\n                      };\n                      if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n                      n.push = n;\n                      n.loaded = !0;\n                      n.version = '2.0';\n                      n.queue = [];\n                      t = b.createElement(e);\n                      t.async = !0;\n                      t.src = v;\n                      s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                      s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s);\n                    })(f, b, e, v, n, t, 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player to claim a Grand Slam title as a neutral at the Australian Open.The big-hitting Belarusian overhauled Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday while barred from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":281812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[335577,17264,5095,61074,1382,20516,14886],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}