"A lot of nonsense": Svitolina puts fans who booed Kostiuk for refusing to shake hands with Belarus' No.1 in place

Former Ukrainian number one Elina Svitolina was outraged by the behaviour of the fans during the Roland Garros match between Marta Kostiuk and Arina Sobolenko of Belarus. The Ukrainian tennis player condemned the fans after they booed her compatriot, who did not shake hands with her opponent from the aggressor country.

Svitolina said this at a press conference after her victory over Martina Trevisan in the first game of Roland Garros, the Ukrainian Tennis portal writes. She stressed that the world should focus on supporting Ukraine and called the situation with Kostyuk absolutely unacceptable.

"Well, what I saw was that a lot of things... I don't know how to say it softer... There is a lot of nonsense around the situation at a time when we need to focus on the main thing that is happening. Many people, the Ukrainian people, need help and support. We focus on a lot of, you know, things like empty words, empty things that don't help the situation, don't help anything. So now I invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. This is the most important thing - to help children, to help women who have lost their husbands because they are at war and fighting for Ukraine. We are losing sight of the fact that people need help now, at this time, as never before," Svitolina said.

It is worth noting that Arina Sobolenko spoke cynically about the war after her victory over Marta Kostiuk and said that statements against Russian aggression were actually meaningless.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Elina Svitolina did not thank Russian Anna Blinkova (WTA No. 66) for her performance in the final of the prestigious tournament in Strasbourg, ignoring the handshake. The match ended with a victory for the Ukrainian, who donated all the prize money to the country.

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