On Monday in Washington, before the tennis match between Elina Svitolina, from Ukraine, and Victoria Azarenka, from Belarus, the organizers of the tournament had a message read to the public, signaling that there would be no handshakes after the match two players. The same message also appeared on the stadium’s screens, while inviting the public to respect both athletes and to understand “the particularly difficult circumstances”. It was the first time that this communication had passed in a tournament of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), the world organization of women’s tennis, but the two tennis players had already met a few weeks earlier. At Wimbledon in early July, failing to shake hands provoked protests, shouts and boos from the audience.
The Wimbledon crowd had criticized him as a choice of poor sportsmanship and breaking conventions, not considering the reasons. Returning to competition in recent months after a break due to maternity leave, Svitolina clarified a position she had already expressed last year, namely that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine she does not intend to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents (Belarus is the main ally of Vladimir Putin’s regime and provided logistical support for the invasion).
The question does not end with the handshake itself, but involves the relationship between sport and politics and concerns the personal responsibilities of athletes in relation to the choices of the governments of their countries. International federations, tournament organizers and sportsmen themselves have shown that they have different opinions, which have led to opposing choices regarding the same admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competitions.
A year ago Wimbledon decided to ban Russians and Belarusians from entering the tournament, a decision changed in the last edition, with a choice described as “incredibly difficult” and came under strong pressure from international tennis organizations (ATP for men, WTA for women). Even the Ukrainian authorities themselves have given different indications to their athletes, initially suggesting never to compete against Russians and Belarusians, then limiting the indication only to opponents who actively represent their respective countries and not when they compete as individuals.
The lack of greeting between Svitolina and Azarenka and the reaction of the public at Wimbledon rekindled the debate, which a few days later left the tennis circles to develop in the context of the fencing World Championships. On July 27, Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan was disqualified for not shaking hands with Russian opponent Anna Smirnova after beating her. She, the latter had underlined the fact by remaining on the platform for half an hour after the end of the match: after the controversy, the international federation had readmitted Kharlan to the tournament.
Elina Svitolina and Victoria Azarenka at Wimbledon at the end of the July 2023 match (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Also to avoid new controversies, the WTA has finally decided to warn the public. Azarenka commented: «This thing arrives 18 months late. So no, I’m not happy.” At Wimbledon Azarenka had gone directly to the sidelines after the defeat, without passing near the net where the handshake normally takes place. For this she had been booed by the audience, who believed it was a moment of little sportsmanship: «What should I have done? You don’t want to shake hands with Russians and Belarussians, I just wanted to respect her decision ».
In June, at Roland Garros in Paris, the Russian Daria Kasatkina had made it clear to Svitolina that she respected her decision by showing her the thumbs up as a sign of respect from the net. Svitolina had appreciated it and she had defined Kasatkina “a truly courageous person”: the Russian, however, had already expressed clearer positions than other Russian athletes on the war in the past, publicly showing solidarity with her Ukrainian colleagues. In any case, only two days later the Paris public had shown they didn’t understand the reasons for Svitolina’s gesture, who had been widely booed after the defeat against the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka for not having greeted her at the end of the match.
✊🏼🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/pfBx4mSpvT
— Elina Monfils (@ElinaSvitolina) July 27, 2023
Svitolina had reiterated his choice: “The Russian soldiers are killing our people and our children, they are kidnapping our children, we cannot behave as if nothing had happened”. She had also requested that the announcement to the public be introduced already at Wimbledon, but the director Sally Bolton she said she was against: «Historically in tennis the decision of how a player behaves at the end of a match is a personal choice: we don’t want to start giving indications on how to behave».
The debate on the issue was not limited to the management of the non-greeting by athletes and tournament organizers, but also concerned the opportunity for choice. There are those who believe that refusing a handshake is equivalent to a direct accusation against opponents, who as individuals have no influence or responsibility on the decisions of the Russian government. Others, on the other hand, underline how often the athletes themselves are used by propaganda and how the political gesture of not greeting them is understandable and completely justifiable.
It’s not just a choice of Elina Svitolina, who however is the strongest and most famous tennis player among the Ukrainian ones. Her compatriot Marta Kostyuk behaves in the same way and a year ago, in the months following the invasion, both had accused colleagues from Russia and Belarus of having exposed themselves little: “There is a moment when silence is equivalent to treason, and this moment is now.” Kostyuk had added: “For me to say ‘No to war’, as some Russian tennis players have done, is too vague, it can mean too many things”. However, it has been pointed out that the commitment that for sportsmen such as Andrei Rublev, who lives in Moscow, and Daniil Medvedev, who has family in Russia, exposing themselves publicly can be particularly dangerous, in Russia dissent on the war can lead to sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
Svitolina and Kostyuk have somewhat softened their positions, but have not changed the decision not to shake hands with Russians and Belarusians. A decision that, however, many still do not share. In an editorial titled “A tennis protest gone off target» il Washington Post he wrote: ‘If there is one thing we know about Russia and Belarus it is that athletes have little influence – and therefore little responsibility – over the belligerent actions of their authoritarian regimes. Furthermore, some of these players have criticized the war or expressed solidarity with its victims. An enlightened world appreciates the distinction between regimes and their subjects. Shake those hands.”
A Ukrainian flag in the stands at Wimbledon (EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN)
Of the opposite opinion is Andreas Kluth, who writes on diplomacy and geopolitics are Bloomberg: «As a gesture, the handshake is a recent phenomenon in human history. It probably arose as a way to demonstrate peaceful intentions, by presenting a right hand not holding a weapon, or as a symbol of the intention to form a bond, by squeezing. Ukrainian athletes can be forgiven if they find neither symbol appropriate, while Russians bomb and terrorize their Ukrainian friends and relatives in their homes.
Tennis player Azarenka has often shown an attitude of indifference to the matter, responding to the press with things like: «Again? How long do we have to talk about it? Talking about handshakes is definitely not life-changing.’ As pointed out in the past by Matthew Willis, a great tennis expert and author of the newsletter The Raquet, the debate is not easy to resolve: «Ukrainians are right to think that geographically close cousins, and those more distant, should do more to help. And individual Russians are right to feel caught in the crossfire of politics that completely detract from their own actions. Easy answers are few and far between in the complex systems that contribute to, or make wars possible.