Tennis player Victoria Azarenka has said the crowd at Wimbledon was drunk on Pimms after she was booed off following her defeat by Ukrainian Elina Svitolina last Sunday.
Azarenka smacked her fists together in the direction of the crowd in a defiant gesture, and shook her head as she was booed off the court after losing 2-6, 6-4, 7-6.
The former world number one Azarenka, 33, who is from Belarus, said: “I’m not sure a lot of people understood what was happening.
“There has probably been a lot of Pimm’s throughout the day. If people are going to focus only on handshakes or a drunk crowd booing in the end, it’s a shame.
“She doesn’t want to shake hands with Russian, Belarusian people. I respected her decision. What should I have done?”
The weeks leading up to Wimbledon have seen much back and forth by the All England Club over Russian and Belarusian players’ participation in the tournament.
So why are Russian players allowed at Wimbledon?
Here is what you need to know.
Why are there Russian players at Wimbledon?
In March, Russian and Belarusian players were given the all-clear to compete at Wimbledon following a U-turn by the All England Club.
Players from both countries were barred from taking part in last year’s tournament, in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
But the All England Club and the Lawn Tennis Association proved outliers in that stance from the rest of the tennis world.
In order to compete at this year’s Wimbledon, players from the two nations were required to sign “neutrality agreements”.
They were prohibited from expressions of support for the war and were told they could not accept funds from the Russian or Belarusian state or bodies linked to the state.
The players were told to “comply with appropriate conditions” spelled out before the tournament.
Where is Mirra Andreeva from?
Teenage tennis player Mirra Andreeva lost in the fourth round to Madison Keys, 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 on Monday.
She was born in Krasnoyarsk — a city on the Yenisei River— in Russia and grew up in Siberia before moving to Sochi, then to Cannes for tennis. Last year, she would not have been permitted to play due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian players.
The 16-year-old Russian had been a crowd favourite, and was set to become the youngest player since Anna Kournikova in 1997 to make the quarter-finals.
But her Wimbledon run ended on a sour note, as she was docked a point for throwing her racket.
The Russian walked over to the umpire’s chair to plead her case, saying: “Do you understand what you are doing? I didn’t throw the racket. I slid. It’s the wrong decision. I slid and then I fell.”
But the decision was upheld.
“For me, it’s a controversial point,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t have any intention to throw the racket. I slid. Honestly, I thought that I will fall forward.
“Maybe it did look like I threw the racket. I don’t know. I didn’t see any videos yet.”
Where is Aryna Sabalenka from?
On Wednesday, Aryna Sabalenka beat Madison Keys 6-2 6-4 and will play Ons Jabeur in the semi-final.
Sabalenka was born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The Belarusian had previously said she could not watch Wimbledon last year because it made her cry.
“I was really sad I couldn't play,” she said. “But at the same time I was thinking it's a good time to reset.”
At a news conference she said: “I just took that time [the ban] as a good preparation, as a good little switch," she told a news conference. “Everything started working better.
“I think that period gave me so much belief in myself. I started playing better, I started feeling better on court, emotionally I started feeling better.”
Where is Daniil Medvedev from?
Daniil Medvedev was born in Moscow, Russia and was encouraged to take tennis seriously by his father at the age of six.
Medvedev made it into the last four on Wednesday thanks to victory against Chris Eubanks, in a five-set thriller.
Medvedev hit a stray tennis ball in the direction of a camerawoman but missed her – he was issued with a code violation and said: “I didn’t want to do what happened to the ball because it was actually a little bit dangerous. I wanted to kind of chip it so it goes over the net and it didn’t bounce as it should, so I was like, ‘Oh, my God’. But at the end nothing happened, so that’s why I was actually surprised about the code.
“We had a chat with the umpire afterwards. I think we were both wrong. I was wrong with my emotions. He was maybe in something else, but that’s a question to him.”
