Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina accused Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka of adding fuel to the fire by standing at the net waiting for a handshake she knew would never happen at the end of their French Open quarter-final on Tuesday.
Svitolina had warned she would not shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which it calls a ‘special military operation’.
"I don’t know, to be fair, what she was waiting for, because my statements were clear enough about the handshake," Svitolina, who was booed by the crowd as she walked straight to her bench after losing the match 6-4 6-4, told a press conference.
"I was expecting that and it was not a surprise for me," she said of the jeers, which she also received when not shaking hands with Russia’s Daria Kasatkina in the previous round.
Asked if world number two Sabalenka was looking to inflame the situation by standing at the net instead of also walking back to her bench, Svitolina said: "Yeah, I think so."
"My initial reaction, was like, what are you doing? Because, in all my press conferences I made my position clear.
"Maybe she’s not on social media during the tournaments, but it is pretty clear. I made multiple statements that I’m not shaking hands, and she played obviously Marta (Kostyuk of Ukraine) as well in the first round. So it’s quite simple."
Sabalenka skipped her two previous press conferences after being earlier grilled on her personal stance on the war as her country is a key staging area for Russia’s operations.
The Belarusian said she did not feel safe at her press conferences and was not sanctioned by tennis authorities, which Svitolina found puzzling.
"Definitely I think it should be equal for everyone. Like, for example, why (Japan’s) Naomi (Osaka) got fined last time and this time there is no fine for the player, who also skips the press conference," she said.
"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."
In 2021, former world number one Osaka was fined $15,000 for skipping a post-match press conference at the French Open and threatened with tough sanctions by the board of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
The Japanese player subsequently withdrew from the tournament citing mental health concerns and later said she had been battling depression and anxiety for years.
