Sabalenka Backs Her Ukrainian Opponent After Crowd Booed Her For No Handshake
WTASunday, 28 May 2023 at 23:00
Updated at Monday, 29 May 2023 at 03:45
The first Roland Garros match on Philippe Chatrier this year was a very interesting battle between Aryna Sabalenka and Marta Kostyuk.
It's not by chance that this match ended up opening the event on Philippe Chatrier. It's a match that had many storylines leading up to it with a few things that were quite predictable. Kostyuk playing quite well was predictable as was the victory of Sabalenka.
Another thing that was predictable was the absence of a post-match handshake. It didn't happen and it resulted in the French crowd booing Kostyuk for what they perceived was a lack of respect. Sabalenka was asked about it after the match and she didn't think it was necessarily disrespectful.
I don't think so. I understand why they are not shaking hands with us. I can imagine if they gonna shake hands with us, and then what's going happen to them from Ukrainian side. So I understand that. And I understand that this is not kind of like personally, you know. That's it.
Kostyuk has been a fierce fighter for what she believes is the right cause slamming everybody that is remotely connected to Russia in any capacity. She certainly didn't hold back when talking about the booes following her match. To her credit, Sabalenka didn't necessarily agree with it either as she said that she doesn't think Kostyuk deserved to leave the court to booes.
I think probably she doesn't -- not probably. I think she doesn't deserve to be, yeah, to leave the court that way.
In an interesting twist, Sabalenka will face compatriot Shymanovich in the next round and most probably we will be seeing a handshake between the two Belarusians.
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