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
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