Sabalenka gave her opinion on Darderi’s controversial end to the match in Indian Wells: “They should have repeated the point”

Aryna Sabalenka is the tennis player of the moment on the WTA circuitby results – she is number 1 with a wide difference from her pursuers – and by charisma. The Belarusian recently beat 6-4, 6-1 Jaqueline Cristian (35th) in the third round of Indian Wells, to get into the round of 16.

After her resounding victory on Californian soil, Sabalenka went to the press conference and there, in addition to talking about her match, she was consulted about one of the controversies that took place in this competition: the match point with which Luciano Darderi lost to Rinky Hijikata.

Referring to the shouts from the crowd before hitting the ball, he declared: “Most of the time I can ignore the noise, but of course, sometimes they can be very annoying and I can hear them. But I can easily recognize if it’s my opponent or if it’s coming from the crowd. It never happened to me, honestly. I don’t know. I think in this case they should have repeated the point because the player got distracted. It’s complicated“.

“If you’re about to make your shot and someone yells something really loud, yes, you can get distracted, like you’re surprised by the noise, and then you can miss. “I feel like it’s the referee’s responsibility to make sure the crowd doesn’t do that, or if they continue to do that, to make sure the person is no longer in the crowd, because it’s complicated in tennis,” he added.

For now, Sabalenka will continue her journey in Indian Wells, where she will face the Japanese Naomi Osaka (16th), four-time Grand Slam champion and former world number 1.

All the WTA 1000 activity from Indian Wells can be followed LIVE on Disney+ Premium Plan.