French Open: Ukrainian Kostyuk was booed after he did not shake hands with Belarusian Sobolenko

When in the women’s singles at the French Open between Arina Sobolenko from Belarus and Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine in the first round met Arina Sobolenko from Ukraine, there was no doubt that the start of the tournament would cause real fireworks.

He did this and more.

The score showed a decisive 6-3, 6-2 victory for Sobolenko, the reigning Australian Open champion, second seed in Paris and one of the hottest players in the world.

But what was not reflected in the score was the behavior of the morning crowd on the main court of Roland Garros, Philippe Chatrier. Spectators teased Kostyuk at the beginning of the match, then booed her when she left the court without shaking hands with Sobolenko. Kostyuk refused to shake hands with any player from Russia or Belarus.

And then there was Sobolenko, who on Sunday came as close as ever to condemning the Russian invasion in a rare statement of defiance by an athlete from Belarus or Russia.

“No one in this world, neither Russian athletes nor Belarusian athletes, supports the war. Nobody,” Sobolenko said at a press conference after the victory. “How can we support the war? No one, normal people, will ever support him.

“It’s like one plus one, that’s two,” she continued, saying that if she could stop the war, she would. “Unfortunately, it’s not in our hands.”

But shortly thereafter, Kostyuk dismissed Sobolenko’s sentiments as empty words.

“I feel like you should ask these players who they would like to win in the war, because if you ask that question, I’m not sure that these people will say they want Ukraine,” Kostyuk said.

She added that Sobolenko should speak for herself, and not for other players from Russia and Belarus.

“I personally know tennis athletes who support the war,” she said, without naming anyone.

The impact of the war in Ukraine on tennis has been constant and ongoing. Fifteen months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war has no end in sight. (Belarus provided a foothold for Russian soldiers, and its leader said country will go to war if it is attacked.)

Belarus and Russia were banned from participating in team tennis events, and their flags and country names were banned from the sport. The moves have left players from Ukraine unsatisfied, while players from Russia and Belarus feel like outcasts.

The tension on Sunday contrasted sharply with the festive mood of the first day of the French Open. This is often one of the most joyful days in tennis, especially when the sky sparkles with a special shade of bright Parisian blue. There is no red like the clay courts of Roland Garros, no crowd that looks as effortlessly elegant as this one: panama hats, silk spring dresses, aperol drinks in fancy glasses, it would seem, in each hand.

The absence of injured star Rafael Nadal, whose record 14 men’s singles titles have made him synonymous with the event, is embarrassing. But as Nadal said, tennis moves fast and waits for no one. A roar of encouragement whenever a French player was in the game echoed through the stadium as loudly as ever.

However, as Kostyuk and Sobolenko have made clear, the war could well make this tournament and tennis summer unlike any before. On Monday, Elina Svitolina, one of the most successful tennis players Ukraine has produced, will return from her maternity leave to the Grand Slam against Martina Trevisan of Italy. Ukraine’s Angelina Kalinina, whose grandparents were forced to leave their home and her parents’ house was bombed, will play France’s Diane Parry on Tuesday in her first match since her emotional advance to the Italian Open final this month.

“Everyone is in a very different situation,” Kostyuk said in an interview on Sunday. “Whoever needs comfort, I am always there. We have a very good group.”

And Kostyuk, it seems, needed a consolation Sunday after the match. At the last stage, she went to shake hands with the chair judge and then straight to her seat on the court. Sobolenko also shook hands with the judge in the chair, then stood for a while watching Kostyuk gather his belongings as the restless noise of the crowd began to escalate.

Sabalenka said she thought she was being booed at first, but then realized it was undeserved for Kostyuk, she added, explaining that she understands why Ukrainian players don’t want to be seen shaking hands with Belarusians or Russians.

Kostyuk said she was shocked by the reaction, which was so different from the support in the United States this year, when she refused to shake hands with a Russian opponent.

“I want to see how people will react to this in 10 years, when the war is over,” she said. “I think they won’t feel very good about what they did.”

The last time Kostyuk was in Ukraine was in March to see her father and grandfather. She went there after the Miami Open. The journey required four flights to reach Poland via her temporary home in Monte Carlo, a two and a half hour train ride to the border, and then a six hour drive. She spent five days there, struggling to sleep amid the distant sounds of bomber drones that her relatives had somehow learned to live with. She said she still hasn’t recovered from the trip.

She woke up at 5 a.m. Sunday to see a series of warnings on her phone about the latest drone attack on Kyiv. the biggest of the war. She said she tried not to look at her phone during the night hours, but when she saw all the warnings, she couldn’t help but want to see what happened.

A few hours later she was at Roland Garros, preparing for the match with Sobolenko. To her surprise, according to her, for the first time since the beginning of the war, before the match with a Russian or Belarusian, she did not focus on the nationality of her opponent. It was refreshing, she said, and it made her think that the day would come when the war would no longer interfere with her chosen pursuit, that every tennis match would be nothing more and nothing less.

Maybe someday, but certainly not on Sunday.