The Australian Open is history, but unfortunately, as is usually the case with a worldwide sporting event, we saw protesters, and shady media trying to bait athletes into talking about things completely unrelated to the particular sporting event, namely contentious political issues.

The media is driven by likes, retweets, and clicks, so you can count on the media, even the sports media to attempt to stir up and manufacture controversy whenever they can. Last week, during a presser at the Australian Open, an Australian media person asked the wrong Belarusian tennis player the wrong question and got a pointed, necessary smackdown.

It isn’t uncommon for the media to get off-topic and attempt to be provocative. We all know they can’t be trusted, and drama sells, but what was unusual and refreshing was the way Victoria Azarenka handled it. She was calm, controlled, and turned the situation back on the hapless reporter, in the process exposing the ulterior motive with the line of questions.

The reporter started by asking Azarenka if she had any opinions on Novak Djokovic’s father being photographed with a group of pro-Russian supporters during the week and her thoughts on the pro-Russian storyline. Why that is relative to women’s tennis, Azarenka, or the Open is irrelevant, but of course that never stops the media.

The reporter kicked things off by asking, “There’s been a lot of scrutiny about a lot of the Russian and Belarusian players here. Is it difficult for you when you go out there to put all those things out of your mind? Do you think there are other players who get impacted by it?” After a long, thoughtful pause, Azarenka dropped the hammer and embarrassed the shady reporter. Azarenka said: “I don’t know what you guys want us to do about it. I don’t know what’s the goal here, that it’s continuously brought up.”

Azarenka continued, “These incidents that, in my opinion, have nothing to do with players. But somehow you keep dragging players into it. So what’s the goal here? I think you should ask yourself that question. Not me.”

At this point, the reporter returned the serve and asked Azarenka why she was so frustrated with the question. The Belarusian star volleyed with precision, saying: “Whatever the answer, I’m going to give it to you right now, it’s going to be turned whichever way you want to turn it to. So does it bother me? What bothers me is there are real things that are going on in the world. And I don’t know. Are you a politician? Are you covering politics?” The reporter answered, “No, I’m a sports journalist.” 

Firing back, Azarenka said, “Yes. And I’m an athlete. And you’re asking me about things that maybe somebody says are in my control. But I don’t believe that. So I don’t know what you want me to answer. And if it’s a provocative question, then, you know, you can spin the story however you want.” Watch the back and forth here:

Clay Travis, commenting on the matter on X (formerly Twitter), said, “Lots of athletes are finally catching on that left wing sports media ask them political questions so the left wing sports media members can write their own left wing political opinions.” Continuing, Travis added, “I’d love to see athletes asked these questions flip it back on the sports media member. ‘What’s your opinion on the issue? You tell me. Then write that. Because when you are asking me, you’re just looking for an excuse to be able to write your own political opinion, not mine.”’

Featured image screengrab from embedded video