'Should Be Equal For Everyone': Svitolina Calls For Regularity In Press Conferences
WTAWednesday, 07 June 2023 at 12:00
Updated at Wednesday, 18 June 2025 at 13:37
Elina Svitolina's run at Roland Garros is over at the hands of Aryna Sabalenka, who proved better in two sets on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian was playing the best tennis she had played since returning to the WTA Tour from pregnancy this year in the past couple of weeks. It started with her trophy run in Strasbourg, but ended at the hands of Sabalenka, who anticipated a handshake, which left Svitolina quite confused.
Ultimately, there wasn't any handshake as the principle of Ukrainian players is not to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players, which Svitolina explained earlier in the event.
Sticking by her principles is something she's very keen on, and she doesn't mind talking about the hard topics either. She didn't dodge any question, and that remains even after the loss.
"Yeah, just I faced difficulties, I faced difficulty also with the question about Novak, about his statement about Kosovo. So, you know, I'm not escaping. I have my strong position, and I'm vocal about that. I'm not gonna try to win the likeness of the people by betraying my strong belief and strongest position for my country."
She was also asked to share her thoughts about Sabalenka skipping press conferences. It's not the first time she has been asked, as she offered her thoughts before.
This time around, though, Svitolina shared a bit more as opposed to last time. The keyword in her response is equality, as she felt that there was a difference between the treatment of Naomi Osaka two years ago and Sabalenka now.
"Well, definitely I think it should be equal for everyone. Like, for example, why Naomi got fined last time and this time there is no fine for the player, which also skip the press conference."
"So this is like if there would be no fine for Naomi, maybe it would be different, but, you know, it should be equal for every situation."
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