Roland-Garros: Ukraine’s Kostyuk goes down to Sabalenka, gets booed by crowd due to no handshake

Sabalenka wins her eighth Grand Slam match in a row with a straight sets win over Kostyuk

Aryna Sabalenka and Marta Kostyuk at 2023 Roland-Garros Image Credit: AI / Reuters / Panoramic

Haresh Ramchandani

May 28, 2023

French Open •First round • completed

See draw

M. KostyukvsA. Sabalenka

The 2023 edition of Roland-Garros got off to a tense start as the match between Russia’s Aryna Sabalenka, the No 2 seed and Australian Open champion, and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk began proceedings on Court Philippe Chatrier. Sabalenka won 6-3, 6-2 but the main story happened after the “game, set, match”.

The match ended on a tense note as there was no post-match customary handshake with Ukrainian players refusing to shake hands with players from Russia and Belarus due to the ongoing war in their country.

“I couldn’t understand what’s going on” said Aryna Sabalenka during her press conference. “Because, I mean, we all know Ukrainian girls will not shake hands with us, so it’s kind of not surprise for us, but probably the public today was surprised. They saw it as disrespect me as a player, so that’s why it was booing to her.”

At first I thought they were booing me. I was a little confused.
Aryna Sabalenka

“But at first I thought they were booing me. I was a little confused, and I was, like, Okay, what should I do? I spoke to my team, make sure that I understand it right. Then I kind of understand what’s going on, and then I was saying thank you to the public, kind of like I felt sorry for what I did at the first […] I think she doesn’t deserve to leave the court that way.”

Kostyuk was the one who broke first to go up 3-2 in the first set but Sabalenka showed why she has become a world-beater this year as she ran off with four games in a row to win it 6-3. In the second set, Sabalenka continued her streak to win the first two games (six in a row overall) to go up 2-0. The Belarusian broke Kostyuk once again to complete the 6-3, 6-2 victory in one hour and 11 minutes.

https://youtu.be/3K4pJZIssqk

While both players had spoken about this in the media prior to their match, the crowd made their displeasure known as they started to boo Kostyuk. Having not seen such a booing at other events during the season, even Sabalenka was left confused as she thought the crowd may have been booing her, only to realise that wasn’t the case.

“Sorry guys I didn’t get it at first. I thought this ‘boo’ was against me. So, I was a little surprised, but then I felt your support. Thank you so much for the support. It’s really important,” Sabalenka said during her on-court interview with Fabrice Santoro.

Aryna Sabalenka taking a bow.

Marta Kostyuk is being booed after the match for not shaking hands.

There’s a lot happening at Roland Garros right now. pic.twitter.com/TWHdQhB4Ue
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 28, 2023

Sabalenka, who improves to 2-0 lifetime against the 39th-ranked Kostyuk, has now won eight matches in a row at the Slams and will hope to make it nine when she plays the winner of the contest between Hungarian Panna Udvardy and Belarusian qualifier Iryna Shymanovich next.

Roland-Garros (Grand Slam), other first round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49,600,000)