Tennis
Marta KOSTIUK: “Someone decided the war is over”
20-year-old Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk commented on the audience whistling towards her after she refused to shake hands with Belarusian Arina Sobolenko after the Roland Garros 2023 first round match.
After the defeat in the duel with the world’s second racket, Marta basically refused to shake hands with a tennis player from the offensive country, where the French major was booed by the audience in the stands.
“I didn’t expect this, but I didn’t know it would get this much publicity in the world. Hours pass after the match and I see a lot of news starting to come out. I didn’t feel that way. In fact, they booed me. Not all of them. Because the whole match supported me more than him (Sobolenko – approx.).
It’s just that some people later decided that for some reason I had to change my position, and for some reason the war suddenly ended … Although I was sure that I would continue to do so after the war was over. And then when I left the courthouse, I got a little booed too. I can say that 30-40 percent booed, 60-70 percent applauded.”
Source: Sport UA
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