Recently, Polish star, Iga Swiatek was severely criticized for using bizarre tactics during her SF match against Madison Keys. What did she do, though? Well, the Pole was spotted taking a bathroom break after the second set. Although Keys was quick to return to the court, Iga Swiatek seemingly took slightly longer. After seeing this, the American was even spotted having a chat with the umpire about the delay, and guess what? A similar thing happened in the final as well! Now, Aryna Sabalenka has also stirred a bit of controversy with a longer bathroom break during her match against Madison Keys in the final of the 2025 AO!

Is it a necessity or just a tactic? Fans have come out in numbers to take a jibe at Aryna Sabalenka. What really happened, though? Well, Aryna Sabalenka was seen taking a toilet break after just 35 minutes on court. Fans have now started to put up a question asking if it was really necessary for her to do that at that moment of the match. Her toilet break after losing a first set has raised quite a lot of controversy now. Some of the fans are now pointing out what could have been the consequence if it had been Iga Swiatek.

Toilet breaks and medical timeouts during the crucial moments of the game have been heavily criticized by the fans time and again. For example, Novak Djokovic’s medical timeout during his QF match against Carlos Alcaraz created a bit of controversy. Seeing his doing that at a crucial moment of the match, American legend, John McEnroe said that he thinks the Serb faked an injury as a tactic during that match.

Notably, bathroom breaks have also become a contentious issue in the tennis world, with fans noting players’ use of prolonged breaks in an attempt to disrupt their opponents’ momentum on numerous occasions. After seeing Iga Swiatek taking a prolonged toilet break we saw Madison Keys asking the chair umpire about the amount of time that the Pole had left in the break, affirming that she had no issues with the bathroom break rules. Iga Swiatek even faced the wrath of the fans for her bizarre “warmup” act in the middle of the match against Keys.

However, her extended toilet break was the most talked about controversial topic during the SF match. A few sets of fans didn’t look pleased with Iga Swiatek at that time and now, another group of fans have started to take a jibe at Aryna Sabalenka for taking up similar tactics.

Fans aren’t too pleased with Aryna Sabalenka’s prolonged toilet break during a crucial moment at the final of the 2025 AO

During the 2024 US Open, we saw Aryna Sabalenka taking a bathroom break to reset herself during her R3 match against Ekaterina Alexandrova. Initially, she struggled a bit during that match, but after that break, Aryna Sabalenka managed to bring out her A-game by minimizing the errors. Now, after seeing her using a probable similar tactic, a fan wondered, “Who will have a toilet break after a 35 min set😭😭😭.“

Did it work this time, though? Well, perhaps she did it but it was just momentarily. Aryna Sabalenka won the second set, but she failed to win the match. Hence, her dream of clinching three successive AO titles was shattered by Madison Keys. The American defeated her by 6-3,2-6,7-5 in a nerve-shredding final set. However, highlighting Aryna Sabalenka’s probable attempt to disrupt Madison Keys’ momentum in the early phases of the match, a few of them said, “She broke the whole momentum of keys Shameful act by her.”

Previously, we’ve seen Iga Swiatek facing some severe backlash from the fans for a similar act. Remember the moment from the SF of the 2024 Cincinnati Masters? Aryna Sabalenka was her opponent that time and shortly after the Belarusian clinched the first set, we saw Iga Swiatek taking an extended toilet break. Speaking on these mid-match breaks, Iga Swiatek had then said, “I tried to use that time to really try to think about what to change and do it in a good way.”

After hearing this, several fans accused her of unsportsmanshiplike behavior. Now, seeing Aryna Sabalenka repeating the same thing and getting escaped from a severe backlash some of the fans pointed this out as a “Campaign against Iga.”

Seeing a fan pointing out the hypocrisy saying, “Sabalenka toilet break after losing a set but as her name is not Swiatek no one will make an issue of it.” another one of them gave a nod saying, “Yes, that makes a perfect sense….” However, with Iga Swiatek we’ve seen this quite a few times now. Can you recall her emergency bathroom break during the SF of the 2022 US Open? Interestingly, Aryna Sabalenka was her opponent at that time.

The break had done the trick that time, as Iga Swiatek raced through the second and the third set after losing the first set 3-6. Even at that time, she justified her break by saying, “I kind of needed to go…I tried to use that time to think about what to change because I remember when I was younger all I would do in the bathroom between sets after I lost was cry. But this time I could think about what to change and actually problem solve.” So, like this players often use these breaks to break opponent’s moment and bring things in their favor. However seeing the hypocrisy surrounding those backlashes featuring Iga Swiatek and the reactions after Aryna Sabalenka took a longer toilet break during the final another fan gave a nod at it saying, “True that.”

However, unfortunately for the current world number one, neither of her ‘tricks’ worked in her favor in this epic final. Madison Keys has now clinched her maiden Grand Slam title. Share your thoughts on this incredible performance by this American superstar.