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By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Monday July 10, 2023
The official policy of Wimbledon on player handshake etiquette is to not have one at all.
That’s the statement being made by tournament organizers despite calls by players to let fans know before a match on why Ukrainian players won’t shake hands with either Russian or Belarusian players.\
“We’ve no intention of doing that,” said Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton on Monday.
Skipping the post-match handshake between Ukrianian and Russian/Belarusian players has been commonplace since the start of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, which began last February. Many fans have yet to get the memo, however.
At many tour-level events, they end up booing one or both players, creating awkward and uncomfortable situations after a match.
That happened at the end of the fourth round meeting between Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Svitolina, who won the match, did not shake Azarenka’s hand. Azarenka for her part did acknowledge her opponent but ended up getting booed by many of the Court No. 1 crowd as she walked off the court.
In her post-match press conference on Sunday, Svitolina called on tennis governing bodies to do more to make tennis watchers aware.
“For me personally, I think the tennis organizations, they have to come out with a statement that there will be no handshake between Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian players," she said. "I don't know if it's maybe not clear for people. Some people not really know what is happening. So I think this is the right way to do.”
The WTA posted a message on its social media channels in an effort to clarify the practice.
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus also agreed with Svitolina that more needs to be done to address the issue. Svitolina herself was booed by Paris fans when she did not shake Sabalenka’s hand after losing to her in the Roland Garros quarterfinals last month.
“As Elina said, I think someone have to come out on social media with the announcement that there is not going to be handshake so players will not leave court with so much hate,” Sabalenka said after her Wimbledon quarterfinal win over Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Daniil Medvedev of Russia also agreed with both Azarenka and Svitolina that the boos after the match were unfortunate.
“As she [Azarenka] said, I actually liked her response on the press conference, she respected the decision of Svitolina, about not shaking hands. I think the crowd that comes, Court 1 is what, maybe 10,000 people. I actually don't know. They're not all going to know the story behind this. They just saw Vika not shaking hands. That's why I think they booed her. I liked her response where she said it was a great match and let's talk about tennis.
"I think it's a pity for sure for her that she got booed, and probably for no reason. But I think the people didn't know the story behind it, and that's why it happened.”