Wimbledon’s Sally Bolton says there is “no intention” for umpires to be told to guide crowds on the politics of post-match handshakes after Victoria Azarenka faced boos.
Belarusian Azarenka was targeted on Sunday after acknowledging Elina Svitolina by raising her racquet following a loss to the Ukrainian.
Svitolina wants tennis bosses to inform crowds of the war-related situation.
“We’ve no intention of doing that,” said chief executive Bolton.
It has been a matter of personal principle for Svitolina and some compatriots not to shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus while the military invasion of Ukraine goes on.
Azarenka knew this so did not expect a handshake and walked away from the net, but not all spectators would have been aware of what was happening.
Bolton said: “Historically in tennis, the decision on how a player reacts at the end of a match is entirely a personal decision for them and I think we don’t really want to start mandating what happens.
“I think we have an incredibly knowledgeable audience at Wimbledon and I think in the most part they would understand what was going on.
“I wouldn’t want to speculate on what everybody in the crowd was thinking last night.
“I would echo what Elina and Vika said. Having witnessed one of the most incredible matches to an absolutely rapt audience, we should be focusing on the tennis and the match we saw, not all of the other stuff that went on.”
Azarenka lost the Court One thriller 2-6 6-4 7-6 (11-9), but the jeers directed at her after the match followed similar incidents in Svitolina’s matches at the French Open.
Former British number one Greg Rusedski believes an announcement should be made after matches to ensure the crowd is aware of the context.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Rusedski said: “All the chair umpire has to say is ‘game, set and match whoever wins’ and make an announcement that Ukrainian players have made a decision that they don’t want to shake the hands of Belarusians or Russian players and it’s not disrespectful, it’s just because of what’s going on in the war.
“If they do that, there won’t be this booing. The fans didn’t know on this occasion, and they didn’t know at the previous occasion at the French Open.”
Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli believes there are many ways to alert a crowd to the situation and avoid similar incidents in the future.
She said: “We receive our tickets on the phone and on the Wimbledon app and everything is digital. You could also make an announcement to…
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