Elina Svitolina and Victoria Azarenka will play at the 2023 Citi Open Washington, and there will be an announcement ahead of the match in relation to a handshake.
Back at Wimbledon, Svitolina and Azarenka played a really brilliant match that ended on a sour note. The players didn't shake hands as was expected, which prompted the crowd to boo Azarenka as she was leaving the court.
It didn't sit right with either player as Svitolina pushed the WTA to announce that there would be no handshakes between Ukrainian and Russian and Belarusian players, with the belief that many aren't aware. Wimbledon declined to do that, claiming that their audience is knowledgeable.
Azarenka has spoken about the incident since then, and in order to prevent that from happening in Washington, the announcers will announce that there will be no shaking of hands after the match, which Svitolina confirmed in her pre-event press conference.
It's a way for the WTA to get ahead of situations like the one where Azarenka was booed off the court after battling for hours and giving the crowd a great show, but still leaving the court without a proper send off.
Yes, after our match at Wimbledon, WTA, as you know, came out with the statement that there would be no handshakes between Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian players. Also yesterday I had a chat with Steve Simon and he told me that they will announce before our match that there will be no handshake. So I'm happy with that.
It's a good thing overall because there is a decent chance that most people in the crowd are not hardcore tennis fans who follow everything in the sport. The decision not to shake hands was a recommendation from the tennis federation of the country, but it's not a rule enforced by it.
Players ultimately choose to do so but not everybody knows that it's in solidarity with the people fighting the war.
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