Wimbledon 2023: Ukraine star Elina Svitolina's face off with Victoria Azarenka ends in boos over handshake snub

Wimbledon (Source: Twitter)

With the exit of Katie Boulter, the campaign of the British athletes come to an end in the ongoing grass court tournament in the United Kingdom. Wimbledon 2023 has been full of controversies due to protests, rescheduling of matches, and curfew periods. Amidst all the chaos, the play continues, and the home crowd has no player left of their own to support. The British Tennis player lost to the third-ranked Elena Rybanika in straight sets.

While Boulter lost 1-6, 1-6 to Rybanika in the round, Sonay Kartal had lost to Madison Keys in straight sets 3-6, 0-6. Jan Choinski lost in straight sets 4-6, 4-6, 6-7 (3-7) to Hubert Hurkacz in the third round. Ryan Peniston lost to his countrymate Andy Murray 3-6, 0-6, 1-6 in the first round by straight sets. George Loffhagen lost to sixth seed Holger Rune in the first round in straight sets. In a good battle, Andy Murray lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in 5 sets. Cameron Norrie and Liam Broady also lost to their respective opponents in the third round.

Djokovic, Alcaraz, and Swiatek progress

Emma Raducanu had earlier opted out of the tournament in order to undergo rehabilitation. On the other hand, some of the big names like Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Madison Keys, and Carlos Alcaraz have progressed further in the tournament by beating their opponents in the third round. Carlos Alcaraz is set to face Matteo Berrettini in the round of 16. Andy Rublev and Jannik Sinner have progressed to the quarterfinal among men.

19th-ranked Victoria Azarenka lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in a close battle. In the tiebreaker of the third set, Svitolina beat the former world number 1 by 11-9. The Ukrainian had already confirmed before the game that she would not have a handshake with Azarenka due to the political tensions between the two nations. But Azarenka waited for Svitolina and was booed by the crowd. The former Grand Slam winner expressed her disappointment with the crowd for the same reason.