Aryna Sabalenka showed her strong mental resilience as she returned to the tennis court and played with intense concentration and determination, despite facing a difficult time in her personal life. She defeated her friend Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the third round of the Miami Open on Friday.
Sabalenka’s ex-partner, Konstantin Koltsov, passed away on Monday morning at the age of 42 in Miami. Police have stated that his death appears to be a suicide. In a statement released on Wednesday, Sabalenka expressed her grief and requested privacy for herself and Koltsov’s family.
Sabalenka, the second seed and winner of the Australian Open, made the choice to stay in the Miami Open rather than pull out. She resumed practicing on Tuesday. In an uncommon move, Miami organizers gave her additional time to get ready for her next match by rescheduling it for Friday, even though the rest of the bottom half of the bracket finished their second round matches on Thursday.
Sabalenka and Badosa are extremely close friends and after defeating Simona Halep in three sets on Tuesday on the Romanian’s return from her reduced doping ban, Badosa explained that she and Sabalenka had spoken at length after Koltsov’s death. Badosa said that it would be “uncomfortable” to face Sabalenka under these circumstances.
Due to the delay caused by rain, Sabalenka and Badosa appeared on the grandstand court wearing all black clothing and a black cap for Sabalenka. In the initial games, Sabalenka had difficulty with her second serve, resulting in three double faults out of her first four attempts.
The 25-year-old slowly made her way into the highly competitive match. Despite facing a recurring back injury this year, Badosa played well in the first set, serving strongly and skillfully using her forehand. However, Sabalenka began to apply pressure on Badosa’s service games and dominated the baseline with her powerful groundstrokes. Sabalenka secured the first break of the match, taking a 4-3 lead. Despite facing significant resistance from Badosa and four set points, Sabalenka served with determination and ultimately won the set.
After winning a challenging first set, Sabalenka increased her aggression and confidently dominated Badosa in the second, particularly with her strong serves and powerful shots. As they hugged at the net, Badosa managed to make Sabalenka smile while congratulating her. Sabalenka then acknowledged the audience before quickly collecting her belongings and deciding not to take part in the customary on-court interview.
Next, Sabalenka will compete against Ukraine’s 32nd seed, Anhelina Kalinina, in the third round of her match. On Thursday, Kalinina managed to save a match point and make a comeback to beat a fatigued Caroline Wozniacki in three sets.
Tara Moore, who was once the top-ranked British doubles player, has launched a GoFundMe campaign in her efforts to make a comeback to the world of professional tennis. This comes after an external investigation concluded that Moore was not at fault or negligent for testing positive for a banned substance in 2022.
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In 2022, Moore achieved a personal best ranking of No 77. However, in May of the same year during the French Open, they were temporarily banned due to a positive test for nandrolone. It would be a year and a half before the matter was brought before the initial independent court in December 2023.
The court ultimately concluded that Moore and Barbara Gatica from Chile, who were jointly tried, had both ingested tainted meat while in Colombia a few days prior to their samples being taken. As a result, they were found not responsible for any wrongdoing and were not given any penalty for being ineligible. However, despite this outcome, Moore’s provisional suspension caused her to miss 19 months of her professional career, causing her to drop out of the top 100 and disappear entirely from the WTA rankings.
Halep, being a grand slam champion, has the privilege of receiving unlimited wildcards for all major events, while Moore faces a daunting challenge of regaining her previous status after being banned. Moore clarified that the funds raised from her GoFundMe campaign would be used for her training, expenses, and ongoing legal costs.
