Tension boils over as Ukrainian is booed for snubbing Handshake
PARIS: Aryna Sabalenka's lesson on geometric precision -lines and angles - blew away Marta Kostyuk's challenge about brunch-time on Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday.
That 71-minute exercise was followed by post-match exchanges that matched the Belarusian's explosive play at Roland Garros.
The outspoken Ukrainian refused to shake hands with the second seed at the end of the clash.
Kostyuk was booed off the venue by the half-house on Chatrier. The statuesque 25-year-old gave the fans an animated 'you are welcome bow' thinking it was her they were booing. Sabalenka later apologized when she learnt that it wasn't her that they were booing.
The 20-year-old Ukrainian dismissed the fans with calculated calm. "I want to see people react to it in ten years (time), when the war is over," she said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "I think they will not feel really nice about what they did."
Earlier Sabalenka, not for the first time, decried the war. "Nobody in this world, Russian athletes or Belarusian athletes, support the war, nobody," the Miami resident said. "How can we support the war? Normal people will never support it."
Kostyuk refused to buy it, saying Sabalenka wasn't taking an individual stand. Kostyuk then went on to give the journalists a lesson on how to quiz Russian and Belarusian athletes.
"I feel like journalists should change the questions that you ask these athletes because the war is already there. It's been 15 months since the war has begun," she said. "You should ask these players who they want to win the war. I'm not so sure these people will say that they want Ukraine to win."
"If you ask me, I would say, Ukraine, of course," she said. "But about them, I'm not sure."
In the upset result of the day, the eighth-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari was stopped by Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (5), 5-7 in the first round. Russian Karen Khachanov came through in five sets against Frenchman Constant Lestienne 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
