The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, number 2 in the world, did not tremble in her debut in Paris where she was undone by a forceful 6-3 and 6-2 of the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who refused to greet her because of the Ukrainian conflict, receiving boos from the stands
It is not the first time that the player from Kiev has been critical of the participation of Russian and Belarusian players in the circuit despite the military aggression they have carried out against her country since February 2022. In the past US Open as well He refused to greet the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, with whom he limited himself to colliding with the racket. On this occasion, her attitude earned her boos from the public in the match that opened the tournament on the center court in Paris.
Sabalenka said that she understood Kostyuk's decision and that it did not deserve booing: "I understand why they don't shake hands with us. I can imagine if they shake hands with us, what will happen to them from the Ukrainian side. I understand that this is not staff".
Sabalenka said she was initially confused by the crowd's reaction, leading her to bow sarcastically to them. She later thanked them for her support.
"Yeah, I couldn't understand what was going on. Because we all know that Ukrainian girls won't shake hands with us, so it's not a surprise to us, but probably today's audience was surprised," Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka said Russian and Belarusian athletes did not support the war. "Nobody in this world, not even Russian or Belarusian athletes, supports the war. How could we? Normal people will never support it." "Why do we have to scream and say that? If it could somehow affect the war, if it could stop it, we would. But unfortunately, it's out of our hands," she added.
The winner of the last Australian Open began her participation in Roland Garros timorous, where she has never managed to overcome the third round and in the early stages of the duel she was at the mercy of her rival, 20 years old and 39 in the ranking. But little by little she recovered the best version of her, the 25-year-old player from Minsk, who ended up scoring the duel in 1 hour and 12 minutes. Her rival will come out of the match between the Hungarian Panna Udvardy, 97 in the world, and the Belarusian Iryna Shymanovich.
