Lesya lay on the court the whole match, and then unexpectedly won.
The representative of Ukraine Lesya Tsurenko at the 2023 US Open has already finished the fight, losing in the second round to Russian Ekaterina Aleksandrova in straight sets. Five years ago, the tennis player managed to perform much more successfully at the US Open: she reached the ¼ finals, losing only to the future champion Naomi Osaka.
A series of brilliant victories delighted fans, but some of the rivals caught the athlete in a dishonest game.
Difficult conditions
In 2018, a constellation of tennis legends battled for the final victory in the women’s singles at the US Open. The Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber, Carolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty were here … It seemed that there was absolutely nothing to catch in such a company of the 36th racket of the world Lesya Tsurenko, however eminent rivals took off one after another, and the Ukrainian continued to successfully move up the grid.
In the first round, Tsurenko dealt with the Belgian Alison van Uytvank in two sets. Then came the turn of the Dane Caroline Wozniacki: the tennis player, who received the second seed number, also capitulated after two sets. In two games, Lesya was also defeated by the Czech Katerina Sinyakova. But in the fourth round, the representative of Ukraine was expected by a much more stubborn rivalry from another representative of the Czech Republic – Marketa Vondrousova.
The conditions for a tennis match, admittedly, were not easy. The temperature over 30 did not help the girls to show their best tennis. Lesya endured the heat harder. She repeatedly sat on the court and with all her appearance made it clear how difficult it was for her. True, during the draws, her strength returned to her.
“She was just pretending”
In general, the Ukrainian started the match well and even led, but then something went wrong: the opponent began to catch up. With the score 5:4 in the first set, Tsurenko decided to take a break. The doctors took Lesya’s temperature and blood pressure and asked if she would be able to continue the match.
The physiotherapist asked me several times if I wanted to stop the match. She saw that I couldn’t breathe normally. She said that something was wrong with me, that something was wrong with my eyes. She thought I couldn’t play,” Tsurenko was quoted by ESPN.
The Ukrainian decided to continue the meeting, however, the pause did not help her much: she nevertheless gave the first set to her opponent, losing in a tie-break. But the second game remained behind her – 7:5. Lesya still defiantly showed how unwell she was, dragging out time at every opportunity, but she was not going to withdraw from the match. Three times per game, she took a medical time-out. This behavior led Vondrousova to suspect a simulation.
I don’t think it was that hard for her. She was just pretending. I didn’t think she’d be filming now, nothing like that. I knew that she would play normally,” Vondrousova said after the match.
However, Marketa herself was approaching her sad end. Trying to drive her opponent around the corners of the court in order to tire the Ukrainian in the heat, the Czech often sent balls out of bounds. At the decisive moment of the final set, she personally charged into the net. 73 unforced errors is too much to count on success in the US Open match.
After two hours and 34 minutes, the difficult confrontation ended: Tsurenko won in three sets and went to the ¼ finals to fight Osaka. There, the tennis player was doomed.
