Tennis

Victoria Azarenka brands Wimbledon fans as ‘drunk’ & ‘unfair’

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Victoria Azarenka branded Wimbledon fans “drunk” and not “fair” after she was booed off court following a fourth-round loss to Elina Svitolina.

It was the first clash between a Russian or Belarusian player and a Ukrainian at Wimbledon since the lifting of last year’s ban on competitors from the aggressor nations.

The crowd, who had been overwhelmingly behind Svitolina throughout, produced a deafening roar when she clinched an epic 2-6 6-4 7-6 (11-9) victory.

However, after the match, Svitolina did not meet Azarenka at the net to shake hands but it was the Belarusian who was jeered as she left Court One.

“What should I have done? Stayed and waited?” Azarenka asked in a post-match interview.

“She doesn’t want to shake hands with Russian, Belarusian people. I respected her decision.”

Hearing the jeers as she walked off Court One, 33-year-old Azarenka paused as if to ask why and made a gesture to the spectators before disappearing.

“I thought it was a great match. If people are going to be focusing only on handshakes or crowd, quite drunk crowd, booing in the end, that’s a shame,” the two-time Grand Slam winner added.

“It was a tennis match. Nobody’s changing lives here. We are playing tennis. We’re doing our jobs. That’s it.”

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