Roland-Garros: Ukraine’s Kostyuk goes down to Sabalenka, gets booed by crowd due to no handshake

The 2023 edition of Roland-Garros got off to a tense start as the match between Russia’s Aryna Sabalenka, the No 2 seed and Australian Open champion, and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk began proceedings on Court Philippe Chatrier. Sabalenka won 6-3, 6-2 but the main story happened after the “game, set, match”.

The match ended on a tense note as there was no post-match customary handshake with Ukrainian players refusing to shake hands with players from Russia and Belarus due to the ongoing war in their country.

“I couldn’t understand what’s going on” said Aryna Sabalenka during her press conference. “Because, I mean, we all know Ukrainian girls will not shake hands with us, so it’s kind of not surprise for us, but probably the public today was surprised. They saw it as disrespect me as a player, so that’s why it was booing to her.”

At first I thought they were booing me. I was a little confused.

Aryna Sabalenka

“But at first I thought they were booing me. I was a little confused, and I was, like, Okay, what should I do? I spoke to my team, make sure that I understand it right. Then I kind of understand what’s going on, and then I was saying thank you to the public, kind of like I felt sorry for what I did at the first […] I think she doesn’t deserve to leave the court that way.”

Kostyuk was the one who broke first to go up 3-2 in the first set but Sabalenka showed why she has become a world-beater this year as she ran off with four games in a row to win it 6-3. In the second set, Sabalenka continued her streak to win the first two games (six in a row overall) to go up 2-0. The Belarusian broke Kostyuk once again to complete the 6-3, 6-2 victory in one hour and 11 minutes.

While both players had spoken about this in the media prior to their match, the crowd made their displeasure known as they started to boo Kostyuk. Having not seen such a booing at other events during the season, even Sabalenka was left confused as she thought the crowd may have been booing her, only to realise that wasn’t the case.

“Sorry guys I didn’t get it at first. I thought this ‘boo’ was against me. So, I was a little surprised, but then I felt your support. Thank you so much for the support. It’s really important,” Sabalenka said during her on-court interview with Fabrice Santoro.

Aryna Sabalenka taking a bow.

Marta Kostyuk is being booed after the match for not shaking hands.

There’s a lot happening at Roland Garros right now. pic.twitter.com/TWHdQhB4Ue

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 28, 2023

Sabalenka, who improves to 2-0 lifetime against the 39th-ranked Kostyuk, has now won eight matches in a row at the Slams and will hope to make it nine when she plays the winner of the contest between Hungarian Panna Udvardy and Belarusian qualifier Iryna Shymanovich next.

Roland-Garros (Grand Slam), other first round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49,600,000)

• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Ons Jabeur
• Selena Janicijevic vs. Oceane Dodin
• Olga Danilovic vs. Kateryna Baindl
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Petra Martic vs. Shelby Rogers
• Clara Burel vs. Sara Sorribes Tormo
• Linda Noskova vs. Danka Kovinic
• Elena Rybakina vs. Brenda Fruhvirtova
• Rebeka Masarova vs. Coco Gauff
• Arantxa Rus vs. Julia Grabher
• Mirra Andreeva vs. Alison Riske-Amritraj
• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Diane Parry
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Barbora Krejcikova
• Lin Zhu vs. Lauren Davis
• Erika Andreeva vs. Emma Navarro
• Victoria Azarenka vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Xinyu Wang vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Rebecca Peterson vs. Fiona Ferro
• Ylena In-Albon vs. Claire Liu
• Iga Swiatek vs. Cristina Bucsa
• Jelena Ostapenko vs. Tereza Martincova
• Anna Blinkova vs. Ysaline Bonaventure
• Simona Waltert vs. Elizabeth Mandlik
• Petra Kvitova vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto
• Nao Hibino vs. Anna-Lena Friedsam
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Viktoriya Tomova
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
• Caroline Garcia vs. Xiyu Wang
• Peyton Stearns vs. Katerina Siniakova
• Elina Svitolina vs. Martina Trevisan
• Tatjana Maria vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Aliona Bolsova vs. Kristina Kucova
• Yulia Putintseva vs. Maryna Zanevska
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Dalma Galfi
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Alycia Parks
• Elina Avanesyan vs. Belinda Bencic
• Rebecca Marino vs. Diana Shnaider
• Karolina Pliskova vs. Sloane Stephens
• Catherine McNally vs. Ana Bogdan
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Linda Fruhvirtova
• Dayana Yastremska vs. Donna Vekic
• Anett Kontaveit vs. Bernarda Pera
• Kaia Kanepi vs. Madison Keys
• Kayla Day vs. Kristina Mladenovic
• Jule Niemeier vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Danielle Collins vs. Jessica Pegula
• Liudmila Samsonova vs. Katie Volynets
• Taylor Townsend vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Mayar Sherif vs. Madison Brengle
• Anna Bondar vs. Irina-Camelia Begu
• Sara Errani vs. Jil Teichmann
• Clara Tauson vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich: sunday
• Tamara Zidansek vs. Qinwen Zheng: sunday
• Alize Cornet vs. Camila Giorgi: sunday
• Leolia Jeanjean vs. Kimberly Birrell: sunday
• Magda Linette vs. Leylah Fernandez: sunday
• Elise Mertens (28) beat Viktoria Hruncakova (LL): 6-1, 6-4
• Kamilla Rakhimova beat Sara Bejlek (Q): 6-0, 6-3
• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-3, 6-2
• Iryna Shymanovich (Q) beat Panna Udvardy: 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1
• Magdalena Frech beat Shuai Zhang (29): 6-1, 6-1
• Storm Hunter (Q) beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz: 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Nadia Podoroska beat Jessika Ponchet (WC): 6-0, 6-2
  

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