Ukrainian Elina Svitolina defeated Russian Daria Kasatkina in the 1/8 finals of Roland Garros, and at the end of the match at the Suzanne-Lenglen arena, both athletes did not shake hands.

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Darya Kasatkina, booed by the audience for not shaking Elina Svitolina’s hand

Kasatkina is a player from Russia who has won the respect of Ukrainians for criticizing the war at the behest of Vladimir Putin, and Daria knew that Elina would not want to touch the net and reduced it to a simple signal from distance.

Svitolina responded with the same gesture, but the crowd booed the Russian and she responded on Twitter.

“I leave Paris with a very bitter feeling. All these days, after every match in Paris, I appreciated and thanked the fans for being with the players. But yesterday I was booed for the simple fact that I respected my opponent’s position of not giving up.

Elina and I showed respect to each other after a very difficult match, and leaving the arena was the worst moment of the day.

Be kind, love one another, don’t spread hatred. Try to make this world a better place. I will love Roland Garros forever, no matter what happens. See you next year” – Daria Kasatkina on Twitter.

Know:

• Players whom Svitolina defeated at Roland Garros 2023: Martina Trevisan (24 WTA), Storm Hunter (204 WTA), Anna Blinkova (56 WTA), Daria Kasatkina (9 WTA).

• Elina reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Grand Slam for the fourth time after the 2015, 2017, 2020 tournaments.

• Elina Svitolina will fight for a place in the semifinals with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenko (favorite 2).

The Roland Garros tournament takes place from May 28 to June 11, has a total prize pool of 49.6 million euros, and is the 127th tournament. Iga Sviatek and Rafael Nadal (14-time winner in Paris) became the champions of the title.

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