Watch: Serena Williams' ex-hitting partner throws massive shade on Victoria Azarenka

05/16/2024 05:00 PM

Victoria Azarenka's former hitting partner Sascha Bajin threw shade on the Belarusian tennis star after the former world No. 1 was seen yelling toward her coach Maxime Tchoutakian while down big in her Rome Open quarterfinal match.

On Wednesday night, Azarenka - ranked at No. 24 in the world - was taking on 15th-ranked Danielle Collins in the Rome quarterfinal. Early in the match, Azarenka had a 2-0 lead. But then, Azarenka dropped 10 of the next 13 games as Collins went to  open a 6-4 4-1 lead. 

With Azarenka down by a set and a break and facing a 0/15 on her serve, coach Tchoutakian tried to encourage the two-time Grand Slam champion to keep trying. But at Tchoutakian's come on, Azarenka bluntly responded yelling: "What do you want me to come on?"

Bajin, who famously served as Serena Williams' hitting partner for eight years, worked with Azarenka for two years after splitting with the American tennis icon. And reacting to a video of Azarenka unloading at her coach Tchoutakian, Bajin wrote on X: "Yeah she is such a nice person (face with rolling eyes emoji)."

Yeah she is such a nice person 🙄

— sascha Bajin (@BigSascha) May 15, 2024

To no one's surprise, it didn't take long before fans started noticing and responding to Bajin's shade on Azarenka. 

Then, some fans decided to do a bit of a digging and see if there was some bad blood between the two in the past. But in his past interviews, Bajin only spoke highly of Azarenka.

“I never knew before what kind of a family person she was, that she’s actually warmhearted, kind, has a great family. She’s very kind. She knows I love Nutella so she would bring me like a jar of Nutella every once in a while. She’s very thoughtful you know, little things that she does to just put a smile on my face and make me happy," Bajin said of Azarenka in the past.