As at Roland-Garros, young mother Elina Svitolina reached the quarter-finals by beating Victoria Azareka after a breathtaking scenario (2-6, 6-4, 7-6). But the Belarusian’s exit from the court was punctuated with whistles.
The vast majority of Victoria Azarenka’s and then Elina Svitolina’s press conferences were devoted to the whistles that accompanied the return to the locker room of the Belarusian, who made a rather bizarre gesture to the crowd, to mark her displeasure. “I wouldn’t be able to duplicate it,” she replied, a little dryly.
In the minds of the spectators, she had refused to shake hands with her Ukrainian opponent. Scenes already seen at Roland-Garros. With the difference that in Paris, it was the wife of Gaël Monfils who had been booed after her defeat against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who had waited for her – in vain – at the net.
Victoria Azareka and Elina Svitolina did not greet each other at Wimbledon, in the round of 16 on July 9, 2023 – AFP
“I experienced that in Paris in my last three matches,” replied Elina Svitolina before proposing a solution to avoid these frankly annoying scenes: “Personally, I think that tournament organizations must manage to communicate on the fact that there won’t be a handshake between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian players. I don’t know if it’s not clear to people. Some don’t really know what’s going on. So I think it’s is the right thing to do.”
“I respected his decision”
An approach that Victoria Azarenka would probably appreciate. “She does not want to shake hands with Russians and Belarusians, she stressed. I respected her decision. What should I have done? Stay and wait? There is nothing I can do which would have been fair, so I just did what I thought was respectful of her decision. You know, I’ve known Elina for a very long time. We’ve always had a good relationship. Now, with the circumstances, you can imagine that …”
On Tuesday, Elina Svitolina will face Iga Swiatek, who saved two match points against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic. This time there will be a nice handshake. The Pole has always shown her support for the Ukrainians. On the circuit, she wears a blue and yellow ribbon in the colors of the country attacked by Russia.
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2023-07-09 22:48:00
#boos #Azarenka #Svitolinas #proposal #handshakes
