Spectators at the DC Open were told before Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina defeated Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (2), 6-4 night that the players would not shake hands when their first-round match ended.
During the war in Ukraine, Svitolina like several other players from her country has declined to participate in the usual meeting at the net with opponents from Russia or Belarus. Russia invaded Ukraine with the help of Belarus in February 2022 and fighting continues. When Svitolina wrapped up her victory, both she and Azarenka walked straight toward the side line to acknowledge the chair umpire. Folks in the stands applauded; a few waved blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags. At other recent tournaments, some fans seemingly unaware of the background booed Ukrainian players for not participating in the customary handshake. After losing to Svitolina at Wimbledon, it was Azarenka who was jeered loudly for not going up to the net herself even though she did so because she knew Svitolina would not want to shake hands. Svitolina, who made it to the Wimbledon semi-finals just three months after returning from maternity leave, said at the time that she thought it would make sense for tournaments to start informing fans about the situation; the All England Club said it would not do that. But Svitolina said she was assured by WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon that there would be a message delivered to the crowd in Washington before her match against Azarenka and there was.
In earlier action on Day 1 at the first combined ATP-WTA 500 event, defending champion Liudmila Samsonova stretched her winning streak in Washington to six matches by beating 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins 6-1, 6-3.