At the Australian Open, American tennis player Alicia Parks reached the third round, where she lost to another US representative, Cori Gauff, in two sets. The meeting ended with warm hugs between the two friends without any hint of rudeness.

But Parks is quite capable of causing a scandal out of the blue: after one of the lost matches, only the referee saved her opponent from reprisal!

Sensation from an American

In November 2019, an ITF tournament with a prize fund of 60 thousand dollars was held in Las Vegas. It was impossible to see superstars on the court, but there were plenty of ambitious contenders for the main prize. One of these was the young Canadian Catherine Sebov. In the second round, she faced Parks.

By now, the 23-year-old American has already won several titles, and more than four years ago, even for competitions under the auspices of the ITF, the girl had to fight her way through qualifications. Having dealt with two rivals in the preliminary rounds, Parks created a sensation by defeating the well-known Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, seeded number one, in three sets.

The first game of the match against Sebov did not work out for the American at all. The Canadian tennis player did not give up a single game to her opponent. In the second set the fight was more stubborn, and the winner was determined only in a tiebreaker. With a cry of “Come on!” Catherine celebrated her success, but Parks could only throw her racket onto the court in irritation. The time has come to shake hands, with which the former rivals were somewhat overzealous.

Alicia Parks / Photo: © picture alliance / Contributor / picture alliance / Gettyimages.ru

“Never squeeze your hand”

Alicia didn’t like the handshake, so much so that she abruptly moved to her opponent’s half of the court and seemed ready to hit her opponent with all her might. And there is enough power in the 185-centimeter owner of one of the strongest serves in the world. Fortunately, bloodshed was averted as the judge stood in the way of the enraged Parks. What it was, one could only guess. After the match, each participant shared her vision of the situation.

“I approached the net, my opponent hit me on the hand and aggressively squeezed it, stronger than anyone else. I told the judge about this, so he came down from the tower before we shook his hand. He didn’t say anything to her, so I came over to say, “Don’t ever squeeze my hand again,” Parks described the situation after the match on social media.

“What Parks said was a lie.” People take her side, but they just don’t know the whole story. You didn’t see how she very disrespectfully made fun of my celebration at the net. She was mimicking me. “I just took her hand tightly, shook it confidently and went to my bag,” Sebov retorted in an interview with Tennis.life.

Alicia Parks / Photo: © Steven Paston – PA Images / Contributor / PA Images / Gettyimages.ru

Fiery speech

It’s funny that the matter was not limited to one emotional episode. When the passions had almost subsided, several people jumped onto the court, among them was the father of the American athlete. Trying to jump over the fence with the grace of a panther, the man spectacularly landed on his fifth point, but pretended that it was planned that way.

True, he may not have had time to plan his further actions: he ran across the entire court, said something indignantly to the referee and Sebov. The Canadian later explained that her rival’s father accused her of racism. After a short spat, the uninvited guest went to the stands, where half a dozen spectators heard a short but fiery speech about oppression.

Alicia’s intercession at a particular tournament still didn’t help. Sebov overcame her nerves, defeating Belarusian Olga Govortsova in the next match. True, the Canadian failed to reach the title: in the semifinals, Katrin lost to the Ukrainian Angelina Kalinina.