(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Aryna Sabalenka would like more protection after the fiasco demonstrations of hatred towards Victoria Azarenka. The Belarusian was booed after the defeat with the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, due to a misinterpreted gesture by the Wimbledon crowdSvitolina did not shake Azarenka’s hand in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Azarenka, who raised her hand in the direction of Svitolina as a sign of respect, left the court amid boos from some sections of the Center Court.Vika told: “It wasn’t right. I thought it was a great tennis match. If people focus only on the handshakes or, rather, on the drunk crowd booing at the end, that’s a shame.”Sabalenka took a position on the matter, explaining in the press-conference, after the victory against Ekaterina Alexandrova: “As Elina Svitolina said, I think someone should announce on social media that there won’t be a handshake, so that the players don’t leave the court with so much hate.
It would be good if the crowd knew what was going on. There is a reason behind not shaking hands.”Elina Svitolina had stated: “I don’t know if maybe it’s not clear for people, some don’t really know what’s going on. So I think this is the right thing to do.”
What happened
Vika, aware that the rival athlete had already expressed her intention not to shake hands with any opponent originally from the Russian or Belarusian country, nodded to her rival from afar before packing her things to leave the court.Elina nodded and then waved to the referee of the bout, later receiving more applause from the spectators for her success.As she left the court, Azarenka was heavily booed by the crowd (probably, for the English, guilty of not approaching Svitolina to shake hands, who, however, would not reciprocate) and certainly didn’t take it good.In fact, the Belarusian got nervous and made a strange gesture to perhaps indicate the handcuffs to answer.
