A racket tip between Belarusian Victoria Azarenka and Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk sealed the deal to a cold finish between the two rivals.
No. 26 seed Azarenka let out a roar after she defeated Kostyuk 6-2, 6-3 on a packed Court 17 to advance to the U.S. Open third round.
“I wasn't surprised,” Azarenka said about the missed handshake after the match. “I don't believe that making a big deal out of it is important. I always shake hands with my opponents. I had the same situation with [Dayana] Yastremska in Washington. It is what it is. I just move on. I cannot force anybody to shake my hand. It's their decision.”
The bitter ending resulted not only from the Russia-Ukraine conflict that began in February but also from a series of events that unfolded last week with the U.S. Open’s Tennis Plays for Peace exhibition, a charity event to earn money for Ukraine.
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The tournament had initially invited Azarenka to partake in the fundraiser but changed its mind on the morning of, citing “the sensitivities to Ukrainian players, and the on-going conflict.”
“I did not understand the reason why they called Victoria Azarenka,” Kostyuk said last week.
“There was no open help from her in our direction…There was no dialogue with me personally, although it cannot be said that I was invisible. Maybe I'm not that visible because I'm not ranked high enough to be talked to, but that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the fact that I've been active enough since the beginning of the war," Kostyuk added.
For her part, Azarenka said after today’s match, “I feel like I've had a very clear message from the beginning, is that I'm here to try to help, which I have done a lot. Maybe not something that people see. And that's not what I do it for. I do it for people who in need, juniors who need clothes, other people who need money or other people who needed transportation or whatever. That's what is important to me, to help people are in need.”
Azarenka is set to take on the winner of Petra Martic on Saturday for a place in the U.S. Open fourth round.
