By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday February 14, 2024
We’ve all heard the saying: “Simply right here for the handshake.”
On Wednesday in Doha that may have been a very good plan, as a result of whereas Victoria Azarenka’s 6-0, 6-3 win over Jelena Ostapenko was rather a lot nearer within the second set, it wasn’t a lot of a match.
No, sadly, the factor that the majority followers shall be speaking about in terms of Azarenka’s third win over Ostapenko within the final six weeks would be the handshake – or lack thereof.
Right here’s the way it went down:
The ‘Handshake’.
😂
pic.twitter.com/ad0s3Rxdd5
— The Tennis Podcast (@TennisPodcast) February 14, 2024
Exhausting to say what Ostapenko’s reasoning for not providing her hand to Azarenka after the match may need been. She did, nonetheless, provide her racquet, and was ready to alternate in a little bit of Covid-style racquet tapping with the Belarusian. Azarenka, a bit confused by all of it, declined.
Was Ostapenko simply being a sore sport? Was she performing in solidarity with Ukraine? Does she have Covid or one other kind of contagious sickness?
It seems that she’s following her countrie’s initiative: We realized on February 1st that “Latvia’s parliament voted Thursday to ban its nationwide groups from taking part in any nationwide groups of Russia and Belarus no matter what flag they could compete below, as a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine.”
We’re unsure how that may play out in tennis circles, however we might have simply gotten our first instance.
This, apparently, explains the awkward second on the web, although we will not make certain till we hear from Jelena herself.
Be aware: This text was up to date for readability concerning Latvia’s resolution to behave in solidarity with Ukraine.
