Tennis
“Ukrainians love match-fixing.” Svitolina’s victory at Wimbledon – a cheap staging?
Elina Svitolina / Photo: © Tim Clayton – Corbis / Contributor / Corbis Sport / Gettyimages.com
Elina’s victories seem dishonest to foreign fans. And her behavior is disgusting.
It’s time for the semi-finals at Wimbledon. In the women’s personal draw, Elina Svitolina also made it to the top four, defeating the world’s No. 1 Iga Šventek. However, this success seemed doubtful to many.
It’s too easy for the best tennis player in the world to give the match to a Ukrainian!
Failure in the third set
Svitolina and Shventek played in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Before that, they met at WTA tournaments only once – in 2021, Iga was stronger than Elina at the WTA 1000 category tournament in Rome. Interestingly, then the draw also brought the Polish and Ukrainian to the ¼ finals.
A new round of confrontation at first took shape in favor of Iga, who made an early break. Elina bounced back, after which a tense game began. The Polka was leading 4:2, but she missed the advantage, and in general she did not look too confident. As a result, Schwentek lost 5:7 in the first set.
In the second game, the opponents exchanged breaks at the start, and after the sixth game, when the score was 3:3, they confidently kept their serve. It came to a tie-break, where Sventek was a little more lucky – 7:6 (7:5).
The third set Iga, frankly, failed. Mistakes unusual for the first racket of the world led to the fact that she took only two games on her serve. On this, her fuse dried up – 2:6. Sventek left Wimbledon in the quarter-finals, while Elina sensationally advanced.
Success is a farce
Surprisingly, not everyone supported Svitolina. In foreign social networks, mixed with enthusiastic comments, sarcastic ones also appeared. Fans did not believe that the Ukrainian was so easily able to beat the first racket of the world.
Particular doubts were caused by the third set, in which Sventek practically quit playing. According to foreign tennis fans, the polka could well have given up the match for “political reasons”. Another version is that the Ukrainian woman herself bribed her rival:
– I know that Ukrainians love fixed matches, but Svitolina has gone too far.
– All this looks like an agreement and a staged show.
– Everything is set up! Ukraine was allowed to win for political purposes.
There are many such opinions. Many are united in their thoughts: Šventek could not lose so easily. Moreover, Svitolina herself did not show an exorbitant level of tennis.
Moreover, some are ready to stop watching tennis if a Ukrainian wins Wimbledon. Its potential success will be considered a farce.
– The women’s tournament was fabricated for the sake of Svitolina, – such an opinion is also found.
Fans see everything
In addition, Elina is remembered for her political statements and actions. In particular, she repeatedly said that she did not intend to shake hands with rivals from Russia and Belarus. This is a direct violation of tennis fair-play, but all officials shamefacedly turn a blind eye to this. Because of this position, Wimbledon is constantly shaken by scandals.
Svitolina is disgusting. She is biased against players just because of their nationality,” wrote American historian and tennis fan Peter Kirstein on Twitter.
At the same time, foreign publications continue to frankly root for Svitolina. They are not embarrassed by Elina’s position, her ambiguous actions and scandalous statements. In fact, they are already ready for the coronation of a Ukrainian woman in London. At the same time, the passage of Russian tennis players beyond the 1/8 finals is called “horror” and “expansion”, which must be urgently fought – preferably by unsportsmanlike methods. Double standards as they are.
As for the accusations of the contractual nature of the match between Svitolina and Shventek, you can be sure that no one in the current circumstances will bring this issue to the official plane. But you can’t fool the fans. They see everything so well.
So the victory of Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon, if it is, will acquire a specific smell.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.