Victoria Azarenkasemifinalist at the Australian Open, has starred in a clash in the press room with a journalist who has asked his position on the case of Novak’s father Djokovicwho was photographed at the Australian Open venue with people displaying pro-community symbols. invasin rusa from Ukraine. Symbols that are of course prohibited in the tournament venue, like the flags of Russia y belarusa country allied with Russia in the invasion, and whose nationality Azarenka holds.
Azarenka’s stance on the war is so ambiguous -it is not possible to know if it is compulsory or not- like that of most of his colleagues on the male and female circuit. has not been pronounced in support for to the aggression led by Vladimir Putin, but neither has he refused openly. In fact, at the beginning of the conflict publicly demanded peacein what seemed an implicit rejection.
Last year he agreed to play in an exhibition prior to the US Open in favor of the victims of Ukraine, but it was excluded due to the protest of tennis players like the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, which he considered improper for a tennis player from an aggressor country to play in favor of the victims. Later they played in the tournament and the Ukrainian did not shake her hand. “She has never approached me personally to tell me her opinion of her, what she thinks about the war,” said Kostyuk, who also said he warned her before the game not to greet her.
Now also implicitly, Victoria has declared herself fed up with all the pressure that Russian and Belarusian tennis players receive. She has claimed that the case of Djokovic’s father said “I don’t know what it has to do with Novak to be fair. A member of the security team explained to me what happened, but I don’t know what they want the players to do. For some reason they keep getting dragged into this.” And he charged that any response he would give would be “interpreted” the way you want. “I’m an athlete and they ask me about things that are not in my control. If it’s a teasing question, you can change the answer any way you want,” she said referring to the questioner.
Azarenka lives in USA, although his family resides in Belarus. Last August he criticized Wimbledon’s stance of excluding Russian and Belarusian tennis players, arguing that tennis was missing an opportunity to show that it “could bring people together.”
