Marta Kostyuk, who is from Ukraine, avoided so much as any eye contact with Aryna Sabalenka, who is from Belarus, after the match, instead walking directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire. Sabalenka walked toward the net as if expecting some sort of exchange.
Unable to sleep the night before her first-round match at the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the Grand Slam tournament's No. 2 seed, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine checked her phone at 5 a.m. Sunday and saw disturbing news back home in Kyiv.
That, then, is why Kostyuk has decided she will not exchange the usual postmatch pleasantries with opponents from Russia or Belarus. And that is why she avoided a handshake -- avoided any eye contact, even -- after losing to Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Day 1 at Roland Garros. "At first, I thought they were booing me," Sabalenka said. "I was a little confused, and I was, like, 'OK, what should I do?"
Sabalenka called Sunday "emotionally tough" -- because of mundane, tennis-related reasons, such as the nerves that come with any first-round match, but more significantly because of the unusual circumstances involving the war.
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