Elina Svitolina is getting ready for a very big match against Victoria Azarenka at the 2023 Wimbledon and she's not going to shake hands with the former WTA number one.
Ukrainians don't shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus, meetings that happen quite often especially among women recently. It's something that's advised to the players by the Ukrainian Tennis Federation though it's not an obligation and players are free to choose whether to follow the instruction or not.
It was explained as a statement of support for their countrymen fighting back home and all Ukranian players have followed it so far. Elina Svitolina is one of those, arguably the most known player from the country right now, and she's certainly going to follow on it against Azarenka as well. Speaking to BBC Sport, the Ukranian talked about the topic.
I played a couple of players from Belarus and Russia in Strasburg and Paris as well. So, nothing new for me. There was a lots of misunderstanding in Paris. Because in Strasburg, everyone understood my position as well, so yeah, hopefully it will be the same understanding in the way from British crowds.
The French crowd certainly had a problem with it as they booed every player that didn't shake hands with their opponent. They booed quite a bit of other things as well so it seems like they were simply in favour of booing anything and everything. For Svitolina, nothing changed. She won't shake hands again.
And my position is the same. I'm not shaking hands with the Russian and Belarusian players, and hopefully also, this will be nothing new for them.
Azarenka likely won't care too much as she's been on the Tour for a very long time and pretty much has seen it all.
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