Washington Open: No handshake between Svitolina & Azarenka, officials warn fans

Spectators at the Washington Open were told before Ukraines Elina Svitolina defeated Belarus Victoria Azarenka 76 2 64 night that the players would not shake hands when their firstround match endedDuring the war in Ukraine Svitolina like several other players from her country has declined to participate in the usual meeting at the net with opponents from Russia or Belarus Russia invaded Ukraine with the help of Belarus in February 2022 and fighting continuesWhen Svitolina wrapped up her victory Monday both she and Azarenka walked straight toward the sideline to acknowledge the chair umpire Folks in the stands applauded a few waved blueandyellow Ukrainian flagsAt other recent tournaments some fans seemingly unaware of the background booed Ukrainian players for not participating in the customary handshake After losing to Svitolina at Wimbledon it was Azarenka who was jeered loudly for not going up to the net herself even though she did so because she knew Svitolina would not want to shake handsSvitolina who made it to the Wimbledon semifinals just three months after returning from maternity leave said at the time that she thought it would make sense for tournaments to start informing fans about the situation the All England Club said it would not do thatBut Svitolina said she was assured by WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon that there would be a message delivered to the crowd in Washington before her match against Azarenka and there wasIts the right thing Svitolina said I asked for the WTA to respect the decision of Ukrainians And they didAlso Read War changed me in so many ways Ukaraines Svitolina after defeating Martina Trevisan at French OpenThe scoreboards read At the conclusion of the match there will be no handshake between the players We appreciate your respect for both athletes during and following the match and for your understanding during these difficult circumstancesThe message was shown after the first set tooI dont care I mean how long are we going to talk about that really Is that a big story Is this interesting for people to keep writing the same thing over and over again said Azarenka a twotime Australian Open champion and former No 1ranked playerAzarenka added that she thought that sort of explanation for fans arrived about how many 18 months too lateThe WTA has not yet decided whether to tell all tournaments to post a similar message before any match involving a player from Ukraine against one from Russia or BelarusIn earlier action on Day 1 at the first combined ATPWTA 500 event defending champion Liudmila Samsonova stretched her winning streak in Washington to six matches by beating 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins 61 63The eighthseeded Samsonova saved both break points she faced while winning four of Collins service games Collins hurt herself by doublefaulting eight timesSamsonova is a 24yearold from Russia who is currently ranked 18th Her trophy on the hard courts of the US Open tuneup tournament a year ago was one of four singles titles shes wonIn other womens matches Lauren Davis eliminated 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens 76 8 36 61 sixthseeded Belinda Bencic advanced when Anastasia Potapova retired in the first set with an injured left ankle and Marta Kostyuk beat 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu 26 63 76 5Sofia Kenin the Australian Open champion and French Open runnerup in 2019 withdrew from the DC Open because of an injured left thigh and was replaced in the field by Peyton Stearns who lost in qualifyingIn mens action Mackenzie McDonald eliminated Diego Schwartzman 63 63 Aslan Karatsev beat Kiranpal Pannu 76 3 61 Alexander Shevchenko defeated Maxime Cressy 63 76 8 Michael Mmoh beat Bradley Klahn 63 63 and Yosuke Watanuki moved into the second round when Wu Yibing stopped playing because of illnessWith agency inputs