Handshake row: Players lose sportsmanship on Wimbledon court amid Ukraine war

Should players at Wimbledon shake hands after a match or not? Wimbledon’s managers do not want to get involved.

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine urged tennis authorities to publicise that Ukrainians won’t shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players after matches so that fans don’t boo because they think some players are being snubbed.

On Sunday, fans on No. 1 Court booed Belarusian Victoria Azarenka after she didn’t walk up to the net to shake hands with Svitolina of Ukraine after the latter won. This was because Azarenka knew that Svitolina doesn’t shake hands with Russians and Belarusians in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She instead waved to her.

Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus echoed Svitolina’s call for an announcement so players will not leave court with so much hate. “… It would be good for the crowd to actually know what’s going on. There is a reason behind no handshake.”

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Wimbledon view

“We have no intention of doing that,” Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton said, referring to Svitolina’s appeal. Bolton said there will not be any instruction to Wimbledon umpires to make announcements about handshakes.

Historically, in tennis, the decision on how a player reacts at the end of a match is entirely a personal decision for them “and I think we don’t really want to start mandating what happens”, Bolton said. At the French Open, it was the other way around for Ukrainian players. Marta Kostyuk was booed when she didn’t shake hands with Sabalenka of Belarus. Svitolina said she was also booed in Paris.

Russian player Daniil Medvedev, who moved into the quarterfinals on Monday, said Azarenka’s booing was a big misunderstanding. In a big crowd, there are bound to be people who don’t know the details, he said.

(With agency inputs)