Victoria Azarenka has branded Wimbledon boos as very unfair, following her narrow defeat against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. The Belarusian who had a 5-0 in head-to-head against Svitolina was handed her maiden loss by the former WTA #3 after a deciding third set tie-breaker.
A high octane contest for almost 3 hours, the 4th Round match got tainted with the controversy of Belarusian being booed off court at the end of the match. Because of the ongoing war, Ukrainian tennis players have made a collective decision to not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players and hence the match recorded no exception.
Azarenka after the 6-2 4-6 6(9)-7 loss, acknowledged the decision of her opponent but the crowd as it is the case with tennis sometimes started to boo the 2-time Grand Slam champion. The former WTA #1 when asked in the post-match press conference if she felt victim to the bizarre behavior of the crowd, replied:
“Victim? Victim that someone didn’t shake my hand? Oh, please. She doesn’t want to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian’s. I respected her decision. What should I have done. Stayed and waited?”
Azarenka continued, “There’s nothing that I could do that would have been right, so I just did what I thought was respectful toward her decision. But this conversation about shaking hands is not a life-changing conversation.”
“I’ve known Elina for a long time and always had a good relationship with her. The circumstances, it is what it is. I don’t think talking about every little gesture is a big story. The bigger you guys make it, the longer it’ll be a conversation.”
In another tense encounter with a very pressing press, Azarenka said that she thought of crowd’s behavior ‘unfair’ towards her. Here is her brief dialogue with the journalist in press conference.
Azarenka: “What do you think about it?”
Journalist: “I’m sorry?”
Azarenka: “How do you think the crowd was in the end? What’s your opinion?”
Journalist: “I feel that was very unfair.”
Azarenka: “I think we agree on that.”
Svitolina who has just recently returned to the WTA circuit after giving birth to her first child with Monfils, voiced her opinion on the awkward situation caused by her insistence to no handshaking with the Russian and Belarusian players.
“I think the tennis organisations have to come out with a statement that there will be no handshake between Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian players. I don’t know if it’s maybe not clear for people. Some people do not know what is happening. So I think this is the right way to do it.”
Svitolina is next up against Poland’s #1 seed Iga Swiatek who has been very outspoken in sharing solidarity with the war-hit Ukraine for the past couple of years.
Svitolina spoke high of her quarterfinal of the pole, “She’s a great champion and a great person. I’m really thankful for her support of Ukrainians, doing everything in her power. My priority is to recover. I’ll sit down with my coach, go over a game plan to see if I can find a way to beat her.”