Tennis fans were shocked to see Serena Williams cropping out Aryna Sabalenka from a picture that was clicked from a recent event in Miami.
Williams and Sabalenka attended the opening of Miami’s Italian coastal beachfront restaurant Casadonna. The two were accompanied by Caroline Wozniacki, her husband David Lee, Alexis Ohanian and Victoria Beckham.
Wozniacki shared photos of the ceremony on social media with all of the aforementioned attendees. In one of the photos, she is seen with Williams, Sabalenka and restaurant co-owner David Grutman.
Serena Williams later posted the same photo on social media, but with Sabalenka cropped out. Tennis fans across the internet didn’t appreciate the former world number one’s actions, with one calling her a 40-year-old bully and writing:
“I’m dead this shady woman needs to be stopped #40yearoldbully.”
Another fan concluded that Williams made it clear that she preferred Iga Swiatek to the current No. 1 player on the women’s tour. The fan posted a photo of Swiatek and Williams together and wrote on Twitter:
“She’s trying to figure out who her real Datta is.”
One user disapproved of the Americans’ actions, writing:
“Wait, that’s actually kind of annoying.”
A third fan even decided to replace Serena Williams as her favorite tennis player with her former arch-rival Maria Sharapova.
“From now on we stand with Maria Sharapova,” the fan said.
The original photo was posted by Caroline Wozniacki on her Instagram.
Here are more reactions from X (formerly Twitter):
“I hope we can be as dominant as Stef Graf and Serena Williams” – Alina Sabalenka
Answering a question about the stability of high-ranked players, Aryna Sabalenka commented on the fierce competition among tennis players on the women’s tour.
“Tennis has improved a lot. Everyone started working with their fitness coaches, trainers, tennis coaches, hitting partners. There is never any easy game now. There is not much difference between being in the top 100 or the top 20 ,” Sabalenka said at a press conference during the Dubai Tennis Championships in February.
The Belarusian continued:
“Everyone can beat everyone. That’s why the top players work so hard for it. You have to play your best tennis from the beginning of the match, so you spend a lot of energy before the final. And then At the end, “It’s harder to fight. This is a positive thing. I hope we can dominate like Stef Graf and Serena Williams have in the past. “
Aryna Sabalenka lost to Serena Williams at the 2021 Australian Open in their only meeting so far.