“What’s your opinion?” Belarus player Victoria Azarenka booed at Wimbledon after match against Elina Svitolina

Boos cascaded around centre court yesterday after the finish of a match in the Women’s tournament between Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka and Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon. In front of a crowd giving her thunderous vocal support, wildcard Svitolina won a superb match 2-6 6-4 7-6 (11-9) to reach the quarter-finals, but it was what happened after the match that elicited the response from the Wimbledon favour.

Azarenka was booed off court after not shaking hands with the Ukrainian wild-card entry, despite the fact that Azarenka herself walked up to the net to offer a handshake, which was not accepted by Svitolina and has continued her tradition of not shaking hands with those from both Belarus and Russia due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine by Russian and Belorussian forces.

That, Azarenka felt, was unfair that she was the one admonished with boos by the usually cordial Wimbledon crowd, and when questioned about it during a post-match interview positioned the question back at a journalist. When asked about her thoughts over the booing, the Belarus athlete responded “what do you think?” 

“How do you think the crowd was in the end? What’s your opinion” she asked the journalist, who responded “I feel that was very unfair,” prompting Azarenka to say “I think we agree on that.” She elaborated further by saying “this conversation about shaking hands is not a life-changing conversation. I thought it was a great tennis match. If people are going to be focusing only on handshakes, that’s a shame. I just did what I thought was respectful towards her decision.”

Svitolina has herself, however, been on the receiving end of boos though after refusing the shake the hand of Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka following a quarter-final defeat in this year’s French Open. "I feel like each player that loses, and there is no handshake, is getting booed," said Svitolina regarding the incident. "I think the tennis organisations have to come out with a statement that there will be no handshake between Russian/Belarusian and Ukrainian players.”

"I don't know if it's maybe unclear for people. I already said multiple times that until Russian troops are out of Ukraine and we take back our territories, I'm not going to shake hands. I have clear statement. I don't know how more clear I can be."

Svitolina takes on top seed Iga Świątek tomorrow at Wimbledon, with a court yet to be decided.