Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk was booed as she left the court after she refused to shake hands with Belarusian rival Aryna Sabalenka at the end of their French Open first-round match at Roland Garros on Sunday.
The match received special attention, given that Kostyuk was one of the most critical of allowing the participation of Russian and Belarusian players in Roland Garros, in the wake of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and the support provided by Belarus to Russia in its war.
Sabalenka, who won the match, knew that Kostyuk would not shake hands with her at the end of the match, and the player said after the match: “If she hates me, that’s okay, I can’t do anything about it.”
Things went well between the two players before the match, but they did not take the usual photograph together before the match, which ended with Sabalenka, the second seed, winning the tournament 6-3, 6-2.
Kostyuk went to shake hands with the referee before leaving the stadium without shaking hands with Sabalenka, and a section of the crowd responded by greeting the Belarusian player while booing the Ukrainian player.
2023-05-28 13:08:45
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