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Svitolina and Azarenka after their match at Wimbledon. (Credit: AFP)
The Belarusian raised concerns about “fermented” crowds and their behavior after her fiery fight against Ukrainian Elena Svitolina
All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton spoke to the media at a press conference today amid the controversy surrounding Victoria Azarenka and Elina Svitolina’s first-pitch match.
After losing Belarusian Azarenka to Ukraine’s Svitolina, Wimbledon officials announced that they had no plans to issue a statement regarding the booing incident that occurred during the match.
In a dramatic encounter that saw both women toil hard to secure their places in the next round, Svitolina reigned supreme as she came back twice and outlasted the former world No. 1 6-2 4-6 6-7 in three fiery sets to reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the second time in her career.
After their heated engagement, Azarenka and Svitolina did not shake hands as a sign of protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Azarenka, who hails from Belarus and is a major military ally of Moscow, raised her hand in a gesture of respect for her opponent and left the court to a chorus of boos from sections of the crowd in attendance.
Former world number 1 Azarenka was shocked by the intensity of the crowd and said the treatment was “not fair”.
Svitolina and all of her fellow Ukrainian players refused to shake hands with their Russian and Belarusian opponents at the recent French Open as well.
“I don’t know if it’s not clear to people, some people don’t really know what’s going on. So I think it’s the right[thing]to do,” Svitolina said.
Many rallied behind Azarenka and Svitolina saying potential tournament declarations were needed to counter the handshake but Bolton squandered that notion, stating that the handshake was a “personal decision” for the players.
“We’re not in a position to control crowds here at Wimbledon. We usually have a very respectable crowd here and I expect we’ll continue to see that as we get into the rest of the tournament,” Bolton said.
Azarenka raised allegations that the fans were “drunk”, but the chief executive of the All England Club maintained her position on the issue, stating that it would be impossible to control the fans.
This is not an issue that we are aware of. What I would say is that what we all saw in that match was a very intense, well-matched contest that had the fans completely on the edge of their seats. So the atmosphere there was incredible. And that was driven by the quality of what they saw on the field.”
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