{"id":314934,"date":"2023-07-09T23:46:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T23:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314934"},"modified":"2023-07-10T00:58:20","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T00:58:20","slug":"shame-stars-provocative-gesture-as-crowd-boos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314934","title":{"rendered":"'Shame': Star's provocative gesture as crowd boos"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was touted as the match the world would be watching<\/a> \u2013 Ukraine's Elina Svitolina<\/a> against Victoria Azarenka<\/a> of Belarus \u2013 and it delivered plenty of controversy.<\/p>\n

Russia's invasion of Ukraine with the help of Belarus and the ongoing feud has inevitably spilled into sport, leading to fiery scenes since the beginning of 2022.<\/p>\n

The fourth round at Wimbledon<\/a> was no different as Svitolina came from one set down to beat Azarenka in the round of 16, triumphing 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9), to send the crowd into raptures.<\/p>\n

AS IT HAPPENED: \ufeff<\/strong>The Ashes, third Test day four<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ashes series alive after gripping England run chase<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

HIGHLIGHTS:<\/strong> Dropped catch that gave England star a life in thriller<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Svitolina has taken a political stand at the end of her matches against all Russian and Belarusian players, opting not to shake their hand post-match. It is a well known stance among the players and the Ukrainian has received a mixed reception for it.<\/p>\n

\"Belarusian<\/p>\n

At Roland-Garros, Svitolina was on the receiving end of boos but against Azarenka she had the Wimbledon crowd behind her.<\/p>\n

After her loss, Azarenka shook the hand of the chair umpire before acknowledging Svitolina with a wave.<\/p>\n

As the Belarusian walked from the court, the crowd began to boo. Azarenka offered a wry smile, shook her head, before raising her arms into the air as if her wrists were cuffed.<\/p>\n

Watch Wimbledon 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Alternatively, you can stream every match live, ad-free and on demand on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, with centre court in 4K UHD.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It was an ugly end to an enthralling match that has set up a blockbuster quarter-final clash between Svitolina and world No.1 star Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the contest, Azarenka said her hands were tied.<\/p>\n

"There is nothing to say \u2013 she doesn't want to shake hands with Russian, Belarusian people," explained the two-time Australian Open winner.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

"I respected her decision. What should I have done? Stayed and waited? I mean, there's no thing that I could do that would have been right, so just did what I thought was respectful towards her decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"This conversation about shaking hands is not a life-changing conversation. If you guys wanna keep talking about it, breaking it out, making it a big deal, headlines, whatever it is, keep going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I thought it was a great tennis match and if people are going to be focusing on handshakes or a crowd, quite drunk crowd, booing in the end, that's a shame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"That's probably what it is in the end of the day, it was a tense match. We are here, tennis match, nobody is changing lives here. We are playing tennis, we are doing our jobs, that's it."<\/p>\n

\"Elina<\/p>\n

While it was frustration for Azarenka, there was elation for Svitolina \u2013 who fought back tears.<\/p>\n

"I think, after giving birth, I would say this is the second happiest moment in my life," said the 28-year-old.<\/p>\n

"It was an extremely tough match. When I was 0-2 down in the second set I heard you guys cheering for me and I almost wanted to cry.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/josemorgado\/status\/1678127318089232385<\/a><\/p>\n

"It was really tough for me because I didn't play my best and 0-2 down and I was really, really struggling and I wanted to really win today.<\/p>\n

"Point by point I was just trying to fight and find the way to win the match and of course you guys gave me so much strength today. It's really unbelievable.<\/p>\n

"I was thinking back home, there are a lot of people watching and cheering for me," she added, wiping tears.<\/p>\n

"There are tough times in Ukraine and I am here in front of you guys. I cannot complain, I just have to win every single point and in the end, here I am, won the match."<\/p>\n

Asked in a post-match press conference about the handshake snub, Svitolina said she believes it is "the right way" \ufeff<\/p>\n

Svitolina will meet world No.1 Iga Swiatek in a quarter-final on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was touted as the match the world would be watching \u2013 Ukraine's Elina Svitolina against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus \u2013 and it delivered plenty […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314940,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314934\/revisions\/314940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}