Australian Open viewers did little to hide their confusion after broadcaster Chris Evert mispronounced Aryna Sabalenka’s name before likening her to a pop icon.
To add insult to injury, Evert accidentally referred to Sabalenka as “Ariana” while providing her two cents following the match. The 71-year-old swiftly corrected her mistake while also poking fun at the on-air gaffe.
“But listen, Ariana, Aryna. Ariana Grande!” Evert said. “Aryna Sabalenka is not used to, she’s used to having every match on her racket, and she finally came up against an opponent who plays the same way,” Evert said, misspelling Sabalenka’s name, but continued with her critical review of the tennis match.
“She did not have any control over the way Rybakina played. Rybakina just played so well at times, and she had one little letdown, but she never gave up, she never gave up belief, and at the end of the day, she was a more solid player.”
Taking to social media, droves of tennis fans questioned if they correctly heard Evert name Sabalenka and Grande in the same sentence. “She mispronounced Aryna and then tried to cover it up in a bizarre way,” an X user wrote. Another asked: “Did Chris Evert really call Aryna Sabalenka, Ariana Grande?”
A third chimed in, “She and Martina should never have a mic in front of them again.”
Others swiftly rushed to the defense of Evert and commended the tennis legend for finding the funny side of her blunder. “No, she was kidding after she mispronounced Aryna’s first name,” a person said, with someone else adding: “It was in jest lol.”
Saturday’s finish is undoubtedly a tough pill to swallow for Sabalenka, who’s become all-too familiar with the feeling of losing in the late rounds of majors. During the 2025 campaign, she lost to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final and Coco Gauff in the French Open final before falling to Amanda Anisimova in the Wimbledon semi-final.
Though Sabalenka stressed that she learned from her mistakes last season, Evert conceded that the 27-year-old still has a ways to go. “Well, you know, as Mary Joe said, last year, she could have won this tournament, beaten by Madison Keys,” Evert noted. “She could have won the French Open. She could have won three slams.
“You know, three majors last year, and she said, ‘I know what I did wrong and I’m not gonna do it again.’ And then this year, she was up 3-0 in the third set. And, you know, she just let it, I think, slip through her fingers a little bit.”
