End of Svitolina’s Roland-Garros run, Sabalenka moves into semi-finals after more handshake controversy

Elina Svitolina’s spectacular return to Grand Slam tennis was ended on Tuesday by world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who triumphed 6-4, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of Roland-Garros.

Unsurprisingly, the Ukrainian snubbed the Belarusian’s offer of a handshake at the net, saying afterwards: “My statements [earlier] were clear enough about the handshake.”

And Svitolina – who has been the darling of the French crowd this fortnight – said she was unsurprised to hear them boo her for refusing the acknowledgement, adding: “I was expecting that.”

Svitolina will return to the Top 75 of the WTA rankings when the next edition is published after the conclusion of the tournament.

This was her ninth Grand Slam quarter-final, but she has only progressed to the last four twice before, both times in 2019.

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Meanwhile, Sabalenka continued her quest for a second consecutive Slam title with her eyes also on the prize of the world No 1 spot, and will play Czech Karolina Muchova next.

Ahead of her victory, the Belarusian beat Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk (6-3, 6-2), qualifier Iryna Shymanovich (7-5, 6-2), Russian Kamilla Rakhimova (6-2, 6-2) and American Sloane Stephens (7-6 (5), 6-4).

Svitolina, ranked No 192, won against Italian Martina Trevisan, the No 26 seed (6-2, 6-2), Australian qualifier Storm Hunter (2-6, 6-3, 6-1), Russian Anna Blinkova (2-6, 6-2, 7-5) and Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 9 seed (6-4, 7-6 (5)) earlier in the tournament.

Paris (Grand Slam), other last 8 results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49.600.000, most recent results first):

• Iga Swiatek vs. Coco Gauff
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Ons Jabeur
• Karolina Muchova beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 7-5, 6-2