Tennis Channel faces massive backlash after labelling Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka ‘one hit wonders’ along with Emma Raducanu
Both Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka are defending Grand Slam champions and have been two of the most consistent women on Tour this year, while Raducanu is just 20 and is still early into her career.
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Elena Rybakina, Emma Raducanu and Aryna Sabalenka (Image via: WTA)
Controversies are part and parcel of a sport and keep happening every single day, more so in sports such as tennis, which has a huge fan following worldwide. However, insulting professional players on a reputed broadcasting channel is not ideal and is often bound to face criticism.
The same exact thing happened when Tennis Channel tweeted a picture in which it put the photos of eight women who had won just one Grand Slam and labeled them as ‘one-hit wonders’. The list includes the likes of Jelena Ostapenko, Sloane Stephens, Bianca Andreescu, Sofia Kenin, Barbara Krejcikova, Emma Raducanu, defending Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, and reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.
As expected, this led to a massive backlash from netizens, who lambasted the Tennis Channel for posting such immature tweets. They were particularly disappointed in finding the names of Elena Rybakina, Sabalenka, and Raducanu. The netizens also pointed out that most of them are still very young and their careers have just taken shape, so labeling them as ‘one-hit wonders’ so early into their careers would be foolish.
One user wrote, “debating one-hit wonders when most of them are still so young.”.
Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here’s what fans have to say:
That’s not all, another user further wrote, “Do they not understand how a one-hit wonder is defined when enough time has passed (and usually their career is over)?” One even said some expletives towards Tennis Channel, “its tc (tennis channel) so brainless ofc (of course).”
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Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka are defending Grand Slam champions
Rybakina is the reigning Wimbledon champion. Moreover, she also reached the finals of the 2023 Australian Open and is consistently playing at the top level of tennis. The lady from Kazakhstan has already clinched the Indian Wells Open and Italian Open this year and is currently ranked No. 4 in the world in women’s singles.
On the other hand, Sabalenka ended her Grand Slam drought by capturing the singles title at this year’s Australian Open, where Rybakina was the finalist. She also won the 2023 Madrid Open and is a prime contender to become champion again at Roland Garros, which begins in just a few days. Also not as consistent as the above two women of recent, Raducanu is still just 20 years old and already has a slam under her belt.
She has a long way to go and can’t be just described as a ‘one-hit wonder’ so early at this stage. This shows that the Tennis Channel has just put the names according to their whims and hasn’t taken into account factors such as form, age of the ladies, etc.
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