![]() The contest ended in unedifying style as the Parisian crowd booed Svitolina for turning down the usual post-match handshake. On Tuesday, she found herself in a similar situation against Svitolina. Political issues have followed Sabalenka throughout her French Open campaign, starting from the moment when she faced Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in her opening match on May 28. ![]() I mean, I don’t support war, meaning I don’t support Lukashenko right now.” Asked whether she supported Lukashenko, she replied: “It’s a tough question. Sabalenka faced repeated questioning about her stance on the war, and in the process she found herself going further than she had in any previous interview. There was no sense that political issues were off the table. And nobody’s putting words in my mouth, so that’s another reason.” I had few days to switch off from the press conference, few days to bring myself together, few days to realise a couple of things. “I felt like my press conference became a political TV show, and I’m not expert in politics. All those bad feelings were in my head, I couldn’t fall asleep. ![]() “I felt like journalists try to put the words in my mouth. Returning to the usual post-match routine after her 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, Sabalenka was asked to expand on her reasoning. In her explanation for that decision – which recalled Naomi Osaka’s own retreat from the interview room two years ago – Sabalenka had said (via tour staff working for the Women’s Tennis Association) that “I did not feel safe in press conference”. ![]() She had skipped most of her media duties after her previous two victories, as a direct result of some feisty questioning from a part-time Ukrainian reporter who had themselves become a refugee from occupied Luhansk. Sabalenka’s press conference drew the largest audience of the fortnight at Roland Garros. This is a brave stance for any Belarusian athlete to take, for Lukashenko – who has been photographed with Sabalenka in the past – is a hardline dictator who expects loyalty from his subjects. Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka made a dramatic return from her six-day press conference blackout, as she told reporters she doesn’t support her president Alexander Lukashenko over the war in Ukraine.
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