Yulia Putintseva fully leaned into her role as villain at the 2026 Australian Open as she cupped her ears to “disrespectful” fans and danced in front of them to celebrate her win over Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez.
Turkish supporters packed out Kia Arena to get behind world No. 112 Sonmez, who stopped play to help a fainting ball girl during her first-round win over Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The Turkish flags were waving and the crowd was going wild when Sonmez won the second set after Putintseva had served for the match.
But it was Putintseva who had the final say as she won 6-3 6-7(3) 6-3.
As she clinched victory, the world No. 94 stood on the baseline with one hand cupped to her ear and another on her waist as she soaked in the boos from the stands.
Putintseva then blew kisses to the crowd before dancing in front of a section of Turkish fans.
Unsurprisingly, her actions did not go down well with fans of her opponent as Putintseva was booed during her on-court interview.
Not that it seemed to bother the 31-year-old, who said with a smile on her face: “Honestly, there was a really crazy atmosphere here and the guys, look at them.
“They are very passionate about what they are doing, and it’s very, very great to see, especially against me, because I love this kind of battle.”
Speaking in her press conference, Putintseva said she felt some fans had been “disrespectful” at times – and that made her even more determined not to lose.
“Today I think was really a lot of disrespectful moments when they were screaming between my first and second serve, like really loud, just to make me [make a] mistake.
“In the game, I think it was 4-3, was a big point, and I opened the court very good, I take my forehand, the guy just started coughing just for my shot. I was like, ‘okay, now, I’m not going to lose’. I was ready to take it all, but I was ready to fight until I die there.
“What can I do? It’s just some people have education of tennis and, unfortunately, some of them not.