PARIS – Couldn’t sleep the night before her first game at French Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the second seed of the Grand Slam, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, checked her phone at 5 a.m. Sunday and found disturbing news back home in Kiev.
At least one person was killed as Kiev suffered its biggest drone attack yet by Russia since the beginning of the warlaunched with a Belarusian-supported invasion in February 2022.
“Maybe it’s something that I can’t describe. I try to put my emotions aside whenever I’m on the pitch. I think I’m better than before and I don’t think it affects me much. everyday, but yeah, it’s just – I don’t know,” said Kostyuk, shaking his head. “Not much to say, really. It’s just part of my life.”
So that’s why Kostyuk has decided she won’t exchange pleasantries after the usual match with opponents from Russia or Belarus. And that’s why she avoided shaking hands – even avoiding any eye contact – after losing to Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Day One at Roland Garros.
What surprised Kostyuk, 20, 39th on Sunday, was the reaction she received from the audience at Court Philippe Chatrier: They loudly booed and whistled mockingly at her as she stepped forward to admit the weight. instead of congratulating the referee. winner after misleading results. The negative reaction grew as she packed up her things and walked off the field towards the dressing room.
“I have to say,” said Kostyuk, “I didn’t expect that… Honestly, people should be embarrassed.”
Kostyuk currently lives in Monaco, her mother and sister are also there, but her father and grandfather are still in Kiev. Perhaps the fans present at the main stadium of the clay court event were unaware of the back story and assumed that Kostyuk was simply not following the usual tennis etiquette.
At first, Sabalenka – who had approached the net as if anticipating some kind of exchange with Kostyuk – thought all that noise was directed at her.
“At first, I thought they were booing me,” Sabalenka said. “I was a bit confused, and I thought, ‘Okay, what should I do?'”
Sabalenka tried to ask the referee what was going on. She also looked up at her entourage in the stands. Then she realized that while she knew that Kostyuk and other Ukrainian players had refused to welcome opponents from Russia or Belarus after a match, the audience might not know — and so Sabalenka reacted in a way that Sabalenka didn’t think deserved.
“They see it as disrespectful,” she surmised. [for] I.”
Overall, if tennis itself isn’t particularly memorable, the overall picture, including the lack of the usual pre-match photo of the athletes after a coin toss, has been a remarkable development. Best on First Day in Paris.
The highest-seeded player to go home is number 7 maria sakkarilost 7-6(5), 7-5 relegated to 42 Karolina Manyova in what is not necessarily a sadness. Both have reached the semi-finals, and Muchova has won her last four Grand Slam matches against top 10 players – including beating Sakkari at last year’s French Open. Also out: number 21 Magda Linettesemi-finalist at the Australian Open, who was defeated 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 by the runner-up of the 2021 US Open Leylah Fernandezand number 29 Shuai Zhang.
Sabalenka called the whole experience “emotionally difficult” — for mundane, tennis-related reasons, such as the stress that comes with any first-round match, but important rather than due to unusual war-related circumstances.
“You’re playing with [a] Ukrainian and you never know what will happen. You never know what people will be — will they support you or not?” explained Sabalenka, who failed to break early and took a 3-2 lead before reeling for six games in a row with a shot. hit hard first. “I was worried, like, people would go against me and I didn’t like to play when people [are] a lot against me.”
A journalist from Ukraine asked Sabalenka what her message to the world was about war, especially in this context: She can make it through. Iga Swiatek 1 in the results-based leaderboard for the next two weeks and, therefore, serve as a role model.
“No one in this world, Russian athlete or Belarusian athlete, supports war. No one. How can we support war? No one – ordinary people – will never be. Support it Why? [do] do we have to raise our voices and say those things? This is like: ‘One plus one [is] two.’ Of course, we don’t support war,” Sabalenka said. But unfortunately, it’s not in our hands.”
When part of those comments was read to Kostyuk by a reporter, she replied in a calm tone, considering that she did not understand why Sabalenka did not come out and said that “personally she does not support This war.”
Kostyuk also rejected the notion that players from Russia or Belarus may have difficulty returning to those countries if they speak out about what is happening in Ukraine.
“I don’t know why it’s such a difficult situation,” said Kostyuk, chuckling.
“I don’t know what other players are afraid of,” she said. “I’m going back to Ukraine, where I could die at any moment by drones, missiles or whatever.”
