cnn
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Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk refused to shake hands with her Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabalenka after their French Open first round match, prompting boos from some spectators.
After Sabalenka secured the 6-3 6-2 victory, Kostyuk walked directly to the referee to shake his hand and then returned to his seat, refusing to meet Sabalenka at the net for the customary handshake.
Then there were boos from the crowd at Roland Garros and again when Kostyuk walked off the court.
Kostyuk, who is from kyiv, said at the Australian Open in January that he would not shake hands with any Russian or Belarusian opponent while war ravaged his country.
Sabalenka fielded some tough questions at her post-match press conference, including from a journalist who accused her of “twisting things as if Ukrainians hate you” and “avoiding” questions asking her to condemn the war, in which Belarus is used as a key theater. ground for Russia's war in Ukraine.
Sabalenka said in March that she had trouble understanding the “hatred” she encountered in the locker room amid tense relations between some players following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“First of all, when I receive questions about Ukrainians, they answer me [journalists] Ask me: 'So, you know they hate you?' Then I answer questions like: 'If they hate me.'
“About the war situation, I said many, many times, no one in this world – Russian athletes, Belarusian athletes – supports war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Normal people will never support him.
“Why do we have to make noise? [public] and saying things, that's like saying 'one plus one equals two', you know, of course we don't support war. And if we could affect the war in some way, if we could stop it, we would, but unfortunately it is not in our hands.”
Sabalenka later added that she understands why Ukrainian players won't shake her hand and said Kostyuk didn't deserve to be booed by the crowd.
Russian and Belarusian players currently continue to compete on circuits as neutral athletes without showing their flag or country.
After winning the ATX Open in Texas in March, Kostyuk also refused to shake hands with her defeated Russian opponent Varvara Gracheva.
