At Roland Garros,
Good big comedy the way we don’t like it. While we carefully (and quite fearfully) scrutinized the attitude of the public on Center Court after the match between Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, whose two countries are at war, to see if the first was going to shake the hand of the second, it is not that which attracted the most attention. Perfectly aware that Elina Svitolina was not going to greet her, as tradition dictates, the world number 2 still decided to come to the net to wait for her victim of the day. With her hands resting on the net, a small smile at her feet and her gaze fixed on Svitolina, Sabalenka made it big.
As expected, the Ukrainian went headlong, without looking at her opponent, who then feigned disappointment before going to shake hands with the referee. This little staging will have finally had the expected effect, since the public of the Central began to boo the companion of Gaël Monfils, the same one that he had acclaimed, on another court, two days earlier, preferring this time boo Kasatkina, who however does not support the war in Ukraine. To tell you the truth, it’s been a long time since we stopped trying to understand the reactions of the public at Roland-Garros but, nevertheless, even when we no longer expect anything (good) from him, he still happens to us. surprise (badly).
This was not the case with Svitolina. “For the boos, I expected it so I was not surprised,” she explained at a press conference a few minutes after her defeat. What surprised her the most, however, was Sabalenka’s reaction. “I don’t know why she waited for me at the net since I made it clear that I wouldn’t shake her hand. I asked myself ”But what is she doing?!”, because at each press conference I repeated that I would not shake hands with them (the Russian and Belarusian players), she may not read the press or social media. »
A press conference in the history of Roland
After having skipped two press conferences in the week, with the agreement of the organizers of Roland-Garros, to preserve her mental health and because she said she felt “insecure” in front of journalists, Aryna Sabalenka finally stopped her boycott. media on Tuesday. Suffice to say that there was not a free seat left in Roland’s large press room. A good twenty brothers and sisters even had to remain standing. “She won the final or what? laughed a colleague as he entered the holy of holies.
And the least we can say is that the audience got its money’s worth. After sending the controversy over her coming to the net by taking out the joker “it was a reflex, since I do that at the end of each of my matches”, Sabalenka then repeated what she had said about the whistles against Kostyuk, in the first round. “She didn’t deserve to be whistled,” she explained. I said it, I have a lot of respect for her, for what she did, to be back at this level only a few months after giving birth to her baby”. So far nothing crazy but the rest will detonate.
While the Belarusian was expected to recite the same song about the war in Ukraine as during her first press conferences, during which she made it a point of honor never to speak on her behalf, this one took everyone by surprise. In her own way: “I have already said that I do not support the war, I have replied many times to the fact that I do not support the war”, she affirmed. Asked about her (proven) support for the Belarusian dictator, the world number 2 stunned the audience by declaring: “Wow, that’s a difficult question…if I say that I don’t support the war, that also means that I do not support Lukashenko. The bomb is dropped and should not remain without consequences in the upper echelons of Belarusian power.