After Iga Swiatek’s forehand crashed into the net on Tuesday to send Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina into the Wimbledon semifinal, the two players embraced warmly at the net.
“We really admire her in Ukraine,” Svitolina said of her Polish opponent.
“She’s done so much, and is doing still so much for Ukraine. It was a much tougher game because she’s a great person, a great champion. When you’re playing your good buddy, it’s tough because you don’t want to see her lose.”
World number one Swiatek, a blue and yellow ribbon pinned to her cap, responded: “I told her on the net that I hope she wins this tournament.”
To do that, she’ll first have to beat Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in Thursday’s semifinal, but the 28-year-old’s achievements at SW19 have already been remarkable.
Elina Svitolina: ‘There are worse things in life’
Born to Jewish parents in Odesa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, Svitolina, a former world number three, only recently returned to the sport after giving birth to a daughter, Skaï, last October, fathered by her husband and fellow tennis pro Gael Monfils of France.
She reached the French Open quarterfinals last month in the her first Grand Slam back and has now knocked four former Grand Slam champions out of Wimbledon: Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin, Victoria Azarenka and now Swiatek. But her thoughts are never far from the situation in Ukraine.
“I know that lots of people back in Ukraine are watching,” she said. “I got a massive amount of messages after the last round. I haven’t checked my phone yet today! I’m happy I can bring a little happiness to peoples’ lives.
“There are many videos on the internet where the kids are watching me on their phones. This really makes my heart melt seeing this.”
Svitolina, who has a picture of herself meeting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy pinned to the top of her Instagram profile, thinks that the simultaneous challenges of having a baby while war rages at home have made her mentally stronger.
“I’m just calmer,” she said. “Of course, I want to win. I have this motivation, like huge motivation, to come back to the top. But I think having a child, and war, made me a different person. I look at things a bit differently.”
“Mentally I don’t take difficult situations as like a disaster, you know? There are worse things in life.”
Victoria Azarenka booed by Wimbledon crowd
Indeed, the ongoing conflict and the geopolitics surrounding it have continued to cast a shadow over Wimbledon, which has readmitted Russian and Belarusian players this year after banning them in 2022.
The scenes which followed Svitolina’s quarterfinal win over Swiatek were a great deal more harmonious than those which had followed her win in the previous round when she had, as expected, avoided shaking hands with Azarenka of Belarus.
Azarenka, for her part, did raise a congratulatory palm towards Svitolina, but she was then booed by the crowd as she left the court. After stopping for a moment and shaking her head, she then clapped her fists together above her head in a less comprehensible gesture before heading for the locker room.
“It wasn’t fair, but it is what it is. What can I do?” she said afterwards. “She [Svitolina] doesn’t want to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian people and I respected her decision. What should I have done? Stayed and waited? There’s nothing that I could do that would have been right, so I just did what I thought was respectful towards her decision.”
Back in early 2022, Azarenka was one of the first to speak out against her country’s part in Russia’s initial assault on Ukraine.
“I’m devastated by the actions that have taken place over the last several days against and in Ukraine. It’s heartbreaking to see how many innocent people have been affected and continue to be affected by such violence,” she wrote on Twitter at the time.
“Since my early childhood, I have always seen and experienced Ukrainian and Belarusian people, as well as both nations, friendly and supportive of one another. It is hard to witness the violent separation that is currently taking place instead of supporting and finding compassion for each other.”
On Sunday at Wimbledon, she added her suspicion that some in the crowd perhaps weren’t aware of the unofficial tour protocol which has developed between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian players regarding handshakes, and suggested that some had been drinking: “There’s probably been a lot of Pimm’s throughout the day.”
Other Russians, however, have been surprised and grateful for the support they’ve received in London.
“I felt really great support during all these two weeks,” said men’s world number seven Andrey Rublev, who was defeated in four sets by Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal on Tuesday. “To be from the country where I am, to have this support, it’s special. I feel sometimes I don’t deserve it. To have it, I’m really grateful for this.”
Svitolina and Sabalenka call for clarification
Among Svitolina’s potential final opponents, should she overcome Vondrousova, are Belarusian world number two Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the world number six.
“Each time I play against them [Russians or Belarusians], it’s a big motivation and a big responsibility for me,” Svitolina said, but she has called, along with Sabalenka, for the tournament organizers to take action to inform the crowd and avoid further Azarenka situations.
“It would be good for the crowd to actually know what’s going on,” said Sabalenka. “There is a reason behind the no handshake.”
Russian men’s third seed Daniil Medvedev also said it was a “pity” that Azarenka was booed, adding: “I don’t think the people knew the story behind it.”
All England Tennis Club chief Sally Bolton ruled out making any announcement, saying: “The decision on how a player reacts at the end of a match is an entirely personal one and we don’t really want to start mandating what happens. I wouldn’t want to speculate on what everybody in the crowd was thinking last night. I think we have an incredibly knowledgeable audience at Wimbledon and I think in the most part they would understand what was going on.”
But the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) posted a statement on Twitter which read: “Due to the ongoing reprehensible war, the WTA respects the position of the Ukrainian athletes in foregoing the tradition of shaking opponents’ hands (from Russia and Belarus) at the end of a match, as this is a personal decision. We have some of the best fans in the world and are grateful for their passion and dedication, and we thank them for their understanding and respect for the athletes.”
For Svitolina, however, her focus is now on Thursday’s semifinal against Vondrousova as she attempts to reach a first career Grand Slam final. Asked how she was going to prepare for that, she laughed and said: “First of all, I’m probably just going to have a beer.”
Edited by James Thorogood
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