Tension overshadows the tennis between Sabalenka and Svitolina

In hindsight, this French Open was probably destined to come down at a time like Tuesday’s.

For 10 days in Paris, and for months on the women’s professional tennis tour, Ukrainian players have made it clear that they will not shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus after their matches. Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus, the second seed and one of the favorites to win the Women’s Singles Championship, knows this better than anyone. Defeating Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the first round last week, she watched as Kostyuk gathered her belongings and quickly left the track to a chorus of boos.

Regardless of the crowd’s hostility, there was no chance that Elina Svitolina, the unofficial leader of the Ukrainian players, would behave any differently when it was her turn to play against Sabalenka on Tuesday. Sabalenka dispatched Svitolina, 6-4, 6-4, with one last bully meeting and one last blasted forehand.

And so, said Svitolina, as she watched Sabalenka wait at the net – and wait, and wait – and stare at her when the game was over, a thought flashed through her mind: “What are you doing?”

Did Svitolina think Sabalenka was taking advantage of the moment, knowing that the crowd at Roland Garros had previously cried at players who abandoned the post-match handshake?

“Yes, unfortunately I think so,” Svitolina said at a post-game press conference.

Sabalenka later denied that she had done such a thing.

“It was just instinct,” she said, because that’s what she always does at the end of a game.

That Sabalenka said anything at all was news in itself. After her third-round victory on Friday, Sabalenka skipped the mandatory post-match press conference and opted to only do an interview with a WTA official. She did the same after her fourth round victory.

Tennis has often been overshadowed by geopolitics during this French Open. Novak Djokovic, the 22-time Grand Slam champion and Serbia’s biggest celebrity, expressed solidarity with ethnic Serb protesters who clashed with NATO forces in Kosovo late last month over control of the region and the status of the country, which more than 100 countries have recognized, but not Serbia and Russia. Djokovic even scribbled on a plastic sign in front of a television camera that Kosovo was the heart of Serbia, a statement that Kosovo supporters called fascist and supported a philosophy that had led to ethnic cleansing.

For Sabalenka, talking about politics became inevitable after she pulled Kostyuk, the up-and-coming Ukrainian, in the first round, and a journalist from Ukraine asked about her previous statements that she would end the war if she could. The journalist also pointed to Sabalenka’s past close relationship with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, who has allowed Russia to use his country as a staging area for its war in Ukraine. The internet is full of photos and videos of Sabalenka with Lukashenko after he arrested political opponents and used the army and police to quell protests.

After those press conferences, Sabalenka announced that she no longer felt “safe” with the news media and chose to speak only to a WTA employee after her next two matches. The WTA and tournament organizers supported her decision and waived the fines and threats of harsher punishments they imposed on Naomi Osaka for doing the same thing at the French Open two years ago.

“I really felt disrespected,” Sabalenka said of those first two tense press conferences on Tuesday.

While Sabalenka struggled off the field, Svitolina became the story of the tournament. She had spent most of last year on maternity leave raising money for relief efforts in Ukraine, and thrilled the crowd as she battled through her first four matches in her first Grand Slam after the birth of her daughter . The local fans have a special affinity for Svitolina, who is married to French tennis player Gaël Monfils, who has been on the court in all of her matches.

Her victories led to a confrontation with Sabalenka, which immediately felt like so much more than a match between two tennis players.

This was Ukraine v Belarus, a beloved player in the sport against a 25-year-old that fans are still getting to know. One had become a leading figure in popular culture on war relief; the other had not made clear where her loyalties lay.

Under pressure from the Ukrainian journalist, Sabalenka had said she did not support the war – “Nobody normal will ever support this war,” she said – but she had not given up her support for Lukashenko.

Tennis-wise, it was a duel between a sharpening retriever, Svitolina, and arguably the women’s game’s leading hitter, Sabalenka, and it soon became clear that unless Sabalenka’s old whimsical self emerged, this wasn’t going to be Svitolina’s day. Sabalenka remained stable and Svitolina dropped out. Sabalenka will meet the Czech Karolina Muchova in the semifinals on Thursday.

Then the awkward confrontation came to an end, and even some boos for Svitolina’s actions when she grabbed her bag, while Sabalenka waited at the net, and when she left the track.

“She didn’t deserve any of this,” Sabalenka said of the crying.

Svitolina said that maybe everyone would be better off if the WTA and tournament organizers made it clear to players from Russia and Belarus that as long as there is war, there will be no handshakes. She also said that one player should not have the advantage of ignoring the potential stress of the news media, while everyone else should be in front of the microphone to respond to any questions.

“I had difficulties,” said Svitolina. ‘I’m not escaping. I have my strong position and I am vocal about that. She said she would not try to curry favor with the public “by betraying my strong convictions and my strongest position for my country”.

When it was Sabalenka’s turn, she once again declared her opposition to the war, and when pressed – by a journalist from Poland – tried to create a small distance between herself and Lukashenko. The Ukrainian journalist who questioned her earlier does not report on the second week of the tournament.

“I don’t support war, which means I don’t support Lukashenko at the moment,” Sabalenka said.

She said she lost sleep over her decision to skip the previous press conferences and said she had felt bad about it and had planned not to skip again, but did not regret the decision.

“I don’t want to be involved in any politics,” she said. “I just want to be a tennis player.”

For now, and with a possible finals date on the horizon with Poland’s Iga Swiatek wearing a Ukrainian flag pin when she plays, that may not be possible.