Wimbledon 2023: Crowd boos Victoria Azarenka after loss against Ukrainian Svitolina in fourth round - Watch
Belarusian player Victoria Azarenka (Source: @Wimbledon)
Ukraine's Elina Svitolina beat Belarusian Victoria Azarenka 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11/9) in a 2 hours 46 minutes long marathon match to reach the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon 2023. With the win, Svitolina set up a tie with championship contender Iga Swiatek in the round of 8. The match, however, will be remembered mostly for the crowd booing Azarenka post her loss.
After the match, Svitolina and Azarenka walked towards the umpire and the Belarusian player held her hand in the Ukrainian player's direction. Svitolina, however, didn't shake Azarenka's hand, a policy she has adopted at the tournaments against Russian and Belarusian players following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Notably, Belarus is a key military partner of Russia.
The crowd, however, wasn't kind either and started booing Azarenka. The player wasn't very amused with the reaction. Have a look at the video here:
Azarenka, after the match, said that it wasn't fair of crowd to boo her and that she hasn't done anything wrong.
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"It wasn't fair. It is what it is. What can I do?" said Azarenka.
"I haven't done anything wrong, but I can't control the crowd. I'm not sure that a lot of people were understanding what's happening.
"But if people are going to be focusing only on handshakes or a quite drunk crowd, booing in the end, that's a shame."
Svitolina, however, wasn't much concerned about Azarenka getting booed or not shaking her hand post winning the match.
"It was like this for me in Paris. It was also unfair," said Svitolina.
"I already said multiple times that until Russian troops are out of Ukraine and we take back our territories, we are not going to shake hands. So I have a clear statement."
The Ukrainian, meanwhile, described the win as the second most happiest moment after her daughter's birth.
"I think after giving birth to our daughter this is the second-happiest moment in my life," said Svitolina. "When I was down I heard you guys cheering for me and I almost wanted to cry."
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