Days after Aryna Sabalenka's bold move, Victoria Azarenka challenges line call from Madrid Open loss

Days after Aryna Sabalenka got involved in a line-call controversy in Stuttgart, Victoria Azarenka called out a line-call made against her during her match at the Madrid Open. The two-time finalist in Madrid lost her opening match 4-6, 2-6 against Olga Danilovic.

After her loss to the Serbian player, Azarenka shared a line mark during one of her points on her social media. The call was made against her, as the line umpire made the "out" call, giving the point to Danilovic. Azarenka shared the picture on X, asking people to give their verdicts on the call.

"This ball in or out ?" commented Azarenka.

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Azarenka's line-call controversy came days after another involving the reigning World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. The incident happened during the Belarusian's quarterfinal clash against Elise Mertens at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

The call was given by the line umpire, and Sabalenka requested the chair umpire to come down and have a look. After the original call was upheld, she was dissatisfied and was also seen taking a picture of the line mark. She later said that she was in favor of electronic line calling on clay courts as they increased the accuracy of line calls and reduced the dependency on chair umpires.

"I prefer to have the Hawk-Eye system than the referee, because sometimes referees can be very weak to go there (to check the mark) and confirm that they made mistake, so yeah, I prefer to have the Hawk-Eye system," said Sabalenka.

Clay courts are the only surface in tennis where the electronic line system was not used, as umpires could make the calls, seeing the visible marks made by the ball on the surface. This year, however, electronic line calling has been introduced on clay courts to increase the accuracy of calls, first time in Charleston on the WTA Tour.

Aryna Sabalenka makes a winning start in Madrid, whereas Victoria Azarenka falls out of the Top 50

Aryna Sabalenka was at her best in her first match at the 2025 Madrid Open, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova. The two-time Madrid champion will now face 28th-seeded Elise Mertens in the next round, having won against the Belgian in their last encounter in Stuttgart last week.

Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka's season continues to be underwhelming, as the Belarusian has won only four of her eleven matches this year. She has yet to win consecutive matches at an event this year. As a result, the former World No. 1 is set to drop out of the Top 50 on the WTA rankings, as she has slipped to No. 53 after the Madrid loss.

On the other hand, Sabalenka maintains her iron grip on the No. 1 ranking, more than 3000 points ahead of second-ranked Iga Swiatek.

About the author

Sagnik, a Mass Communication and Journalism graduate, is a tennis journalist at Sportskeeda. Before finding his spot in the tennis writing team, he worked as a junior content specialist for academic content writing firms for a couple of years.

Before putting out any information in the public domain, Sagnik makes sure that every element of his content is well-researched and backed with credible data so that there is no misinterpretation of facts or quotes and ethical standards are maintained. To do so, Sagnik follows reputed websites like the Tennis Channel and Tennis TV, and renowned journalists on social media.

He is a fan of former player Roger Federer, and just like his favorite player, Sagnik likes to bring perfection to his write-ups by providing concise and on-point content. Speaking of the ‘GOAT’ debate, Sagnik believes that it is a bit unfair to compare the legends of the game from different eras who have played on different terms. But if he were to pick one, he’d go for Novak Djokovic based on his tally of 24 Grand Slam titles.

When not writing about tennis and technically analyzing the sport, which he believes are his 'forte', Sagnik indulges in reading books.

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Edited by Hitesh Nigam