Victoria Azarenka lost patience with questions over her season-disrupting foot injury on Monday, telling reporters to stop treating it like a near-death experience.
The former world number one hit out after reaching the US Open quarter-finals with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win against Serb qualifier Aleksandra Krunic.
But after one reporter wanted to know the extent to which she had “suffered” during her five-month lay-off earlier this year, he was admonished for a lack of perspective.
“You’re making it sound like I almost died and there was 10 sharks and I got attacked and I survived. And, you know, I saved a dolphin, as well,” said the 25-year-old Azarenka, the runner-up in New York for the last two years.
“It’s not that complicated. What I enjoy is to play tennis. To be talking about what happened with my injuries, it’s useless already. What happened in the past, you know, I ain’t got no genie in the bottle to wish what could I do in the past.”
