Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok yesterday accused France’s Kristina Mladenovic of making a “very direct threat” against her during a testy women’s doubles clash at the Australian Open (AO).
Kichenok came under fire after snubbing a handshake with Mladenovic after she and Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching were beaten in straight sets on Monday.
The Ukrainian did shake hands with Mladenovic’s partner, China’s Zhang Shuai, before leaving the court.
Photo: EPA-EFE
After the match, Mladenovic said that there was unsportsmanlike behavior going on.
“If you want my real honest opinion, I think the opposition team woke me up because they were showing a little bit of unsportsmanship during my serve,” she said. “I got really mad.”
Kichenok fired back yesterday in a statement on social media.
Photo: Reuters
“I would like to clarify the situation that has happened in my 3rd round AO match against Kristina Mladenovic,” she wrote.
“Publicly accused of bad sportsmanship. I would like to say my word. I received very direct threat from my opponent during the match after unintentionally hitting her with a tennis ball. The response to my numerous apologies was ‘you watch out next time,’” she added.
“I don’t consider appropriate the act of respect like shake of hands in the end of the match with people who use verbal threats. Period,” she wrote.
Mladenovic and Zhang were beaten in the fourth round by top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.
Townsend and Siniakova face Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals today. The other semi is to be played between Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
Luka Doncic on Monday produced a 46-point masterpiece as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped the Chicago Bulls’ four-game winning streak with a 129-118 victory on the road. Doncic rattled in eight three-pointers on 15-of-25 shooting from the field, finishing with seven rebounds and 11 assists to lead an impressive Lakers effort at the United Center. LeBron James chipped in with 24 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Rui Hachimura delivered an eye-catching cameo off the bench with 23 points from nine-of-11 shooting. The win was another encouraging result for the Lakers after a 116-110 defeat of the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. “We did
Juventus on Sunday dealt a huge blow to SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense with a 3-0 win in Turin which left the reigning champions nine points behind league leaders Inter, who are pulling away from the chasing pack. Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic netted in Turin as Juve, a revitalized team under Luciano Spalletti, moved into fourth with a statement win. Juve are fifth and one point behind both Napoli and AS Roma, who lifted themselves into third with a 1-1 draw with second-placed AC Milan in Rome. “We played really well and had fun ... today we were great,”
RSS