WIMBLEDON, England — One of the most memorable matches of this Wimbledon fortnight shared the spotlight with controversy Sunday when Victoria Azarenka was loudly booed while walking off the court following her 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (11-9) loss to Elina Svitolina in the round of 16.
Wimbledon has not remained neutral, either. It banned Russians and Belarusians from playing in 2022, and though it welcomed them back this year, the All England Club is covering the lodging costs of two rooms for all Ukrainian players competing at any British event for the entirety of the grass-court season.
“It’s a huge help for us because a lot of players right now, they had to relocate completely. They are paying for their family, for their friends somewhere in Europe to find new homes,” the unseeded Svitolina said.
Sunday’s boos appeared to focus on the lack of a handshake after the match, which Svitolina won after charging back from trailing 4-7 in the third-set tiebreak.
At the conclusion, the 19th-seeded Azarenka approached the net and, aware Svitolina would not shake hands with her, held up a hand and nodded with respect — a gesture Svitolina did not acknowledge. The stadium then filled with boos as Azarenka walked off. Never one to tamp her fiery personality, Azarenka stopped, turned to look at the crowd, then bumped her fists together over her head in what she later said was a gesture without meaning that she did in the heat of the moment.
Russians and Ukrainians faced similar boos at the French Open from crowds that seemed to be unaware of the Ukrainian players’ handshake policy. Azarenka, who Sunday wore sunglasses throughout her post-match news conference and was clearly irked, called the booing unfair.
“I can’t control the crowd. I’m not sure that a lot of people were understanding what’s happening. ... It’s probably been a lot of Pimm’s throughout the day,” she said, referring to an English alcoholic drink.
When a reporter suggested Azarenka had been booed without doing anything wrong, the 33-year-old said that is the type of treatment she has received since the invasion began.
“I haven’t done anything wrong but keep getting different treatment sometimes. But what can I say about the crowd? There is nothing to say,” Azarenka said. “[Svitolina] doesn’t want to shake hands with Russian, Belarusian people. I respected her decision. What should I have done? Stayed and waited? There’s nothing that I could do that would have been right, so I just did what I thought was respectful towards her decision.
“But this conversation about shaking hands is not a life-changing conversation. So if you guys want to keep talking about it, bring it up, make it a big deal, headlines, whatever it is — keep going. ... It was a tennis match. ... Nobody’s changing lives here. We are playing tennis. We’re doing our jobs. That’s it.”
To allay future crowd confusion, Svitolina called on the tennis tours to release a statement about the Ukrainians’ refusal to shake hands. She was booed after her quarterfinal loss at the French Open after refusing to shake hands with second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
“I think the right thing to do is to come out. I already said multiple times,” Svitolina said at a news conference afterward, softly banging her fist on the table she sat behind, “that until Russian troops are out of Ukraine and we take back our territories, [we’re] not going to shake hands. So I have clear statement.”
Svitolina’s opinion on the significance of the match differed from Azarenka’s. She called Sunday the second-best day of her life, aside from giving birth to her daughter in October, and she had 60 or 70 messages on her phone from friends and family members expressing their support.
“I know that a lot of people are back home watching, supporting me. I feel responsibility as well,” said Svitolina, who will face top-seeded Iga Swiatek in a quarterfinal Tuesday. “So if I’m going out to play this match against Russian [or] Belarusian, I feel of course more pressure that I need to win. That’s why it means a lot to get these kinds of wins. In my own way, to bring this victory, small victory, to Ukraine.”