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Jeers rain down as Kostyuk refuses to shake hands with Sabalenka at French open

Aryna Sabalenka kept her cool to win a politically-charged French Open duel against Marta Kostyuk on Sunday as jeers rained down after the defeated Ukrainian refused to shake hands with her Belarusian opponent.

Published: 28 May 2023 13:24 CEST
Jeers rain down as Kostyuk refuses to shake hands with Sabalenka at French open
Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk (R) and Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka (L) attend the toss prior to their women's singles match on day one of Roland-Garros. Photo: Thomas SAMSON/AFP.

World number two and Australian Open champion Sabalenka swept 10 of the last 12 games to win 6-3, 6-2 as she kick-started her push to reach the second week in Paris for the first time.

Kostyuk honoured her pledge not to shake hands with Sabalenka in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is a key military ally of Moscow.

“It was a very tough match, tough emotionally. I didn’t know if the booing was against me but thank you so much for your support, it’s really important,” said Sabalenka who performed a theatrical bow to the sparse Court Philippe Chatrier crowd.

Kostyuk, 20, famously refused to shake hands with Sabalenka’s Belarusian compatriot and former world number one Victoria Azarenka at the US Open last year. She opted instead for a cursory touch of racquets at the net.

The 39th-ranked Kostyuk has been a vociferous critic of the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian players to keep competing on tour since the invasion of her country.

“If she hates me, OK. I can’t do anything about that,” said 25-year-old Sabalenka on the eve of the match.

“About the no shaking, I can kind of understand them. Like I imagine if they’re going to shake hands with Russians and Belarusians, then they’re gonna get so many messages from their home countries.”

“If they feel good with no shaking hands, I’m happy with that.”

This year sees a new era at the French Open where for the first time since 2004 Rafael Nadal will not grace the famous red clay.

Injured Nadal, the 14-time champion, sits out the 2023 edition of a tournament where he has lost just three of 115 matches.

In his absence, Novak Djokovic, a two-time winner, and the man responsible for two of Nadal’s three career losses in Paris, will look to edge ahead of the Spaniard with a record-setting 23rd major.

However, he faces serious threats from the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev, currently the world’s top two players ahead of Djokovic.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fifth seed and runner-up to Djokovic in the 2021 final after squandering a two-sets lead, begins his bid for a first Grand Slam later Sunday against Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic.

Tsitsipas has enjoyed a solid clay court season, finishing runner-up to Alcaraz in Barcelona and making the semi-finals in Rome last week.

Former top 40 player Vesely has plummeted to 452 in the world and has not played a match on the main ATP Tour all year.

However, the 29-year-old Czech is not to be under-estimated — he defeated Djokovic at the 2016 Monte Carlo Masters and again in Dubai last year.

He and Marat Safin are the only players to beat Djokovic multiple times with no losses.

Andrey Rublev, the seventh seed and Monte Carlo champion in April, begins against Laslo Djere of Serbia.

Rublev has made the quarter-finals in Paris on two occasions while 57th-ranked Djere has twice made the third round.

Women’s third seed Jessica Pegula and eighth-seeded Maria Sakkari are also in action on Sunday.

Pegula, a quarter-finalist in 2022, tackles American compatriot Danielle Collins.

Sakkari made the semi-finals in 2021 where she was defeated in a three-set epic by eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova.

Another Czech player, Karolina Muchova is her opponent on Sunday.

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POLITICS

Macron warns ‘mortal’ Europe needs credible defence

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:41 CEST
Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs credible defence

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade… the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he added, also pointing to the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Macron returned to the same themes of a speech he gave in September 2017 months after taking office at the same location – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years on has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron champions the concept of European strategic autonomy in economy and defence, arguing that Europe needs to face crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without relying on the US.

He urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Russia for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He said he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and added that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

Macron said preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment and backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade — as they were written up 15 years ago — if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors.”

Macron is, after Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far right and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the elections in his speech, even though analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign, with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

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