Victoria Azarenka was ordered to remove a shirt she was wearing in bizarre scenes before her semi-final loss at the Australian Open on Thursday night.
After a nailbiting first set, reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina claimed the tie-break and ran away with the match, winning 7-6 6-3.
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Before the match, Azarenka walked onto Rod Laver Arena wearing a Paris Saint Germain football jersey but was swiftly told by umpire Alison Hughes to remove it.
The 33-year-old had worn the PSG shirt onto court before several of her matches at Melbourne Park, explaining she wears it because it’s the club her son Leo supports and wants to play for one day.
Azarenka had also worn the jersey during press conferences, but the umpire told her to remove it and warm up in the outfit she was going to play in.
The two-time Australian Open champion complied with the directive and said she believed it was a sponsorship issue — even though Azarenka and PSG are both sponsored by Nike.
“They told me to take it off twice because I had a different shirt,” Azarenka said in her post-match press conference.
“I think it’s the issue with the sponsorships. I guess the logos are too big … I know that I’m not allowed to play in that. I knew those type of things.
“But I can still step on the court in what I want to step on the court. I do it for my own reasons. My son wore the white jersey today to his practice, and I tried to wear a white jersey to my match but couldn’t. So that’s OK.”
Azarenka was vying to become just the fourth woman to win a grand slam after becoming a mother but fell just short of the rare feat.
Saturday’s final will see Rykabina take on Aryna Sabalenka after the Belarusian beat Poland’s Magda Linette 7-6 6-2 in the other semi-final.
Azarenka was in no mood for journalists after her straight sets defeat.
The veteran was asked a prickly question in her post match press conference about Russian nationalists staging a demonstration in support of President Vladimir Putin outside Rod Laver Arena.
On Thursday it emerged Novak Djokovic’s father Srdan posed for a photo with members of the group, including one man wearing a T-shirt featuring the ‘Z’ pro-war symbol. The demonstration, which followed Djokovic’s win over Andrey Rublev on Wednesday night, was a critical discussion point, however, Azarenka, who is playing under a neutral flag as Belarusian player, batted away the series of questions.
Azarenka’s exchange with one reporter became frosty as she said her response was likely to be “spun”.
“You’re asking me about things that maybe somebody says are in my control, but I don’t believe that,” she said.
“I don’t know what you want me to answer. If it’s a provocative question, then you can spin the story however you want.”
She said the off-field scandal has nothing to do with the players at the tournament.
“Whatever the answer I’m going to give it to you right now, it’s going to be turned whichever way you want to turn it to,” she said.
“So does it bother me? What bothers me is there’s real things that’s going on in the world.”
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