Victoria Azarenka slams 'unfair' Wimbledon crowd over booing controversy

Victoria Azarenka

Victoria Azarenka blasted the Wimbledon crowd as "unfair" and "drunk" after she was booed off Centre Court following her defeat to Elina Svitolina in a politically charged clash on Sunday. Ukraine's Svitolina came through 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11/9) after two hours and 46 minutes of thrilling shot-making on Court One to set up a quarter-final clash with world number one Iga Swiatek.

As has become a common feature, Svitolina did not shake hands with Belarusian Azarenka in protest over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is a key military ally of Moscow. Azarenka, who held her hand up in the direction of Svitolina, seemingly in a gesture of respect, left the court to the sound of boos.

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"It wasn't fair. It is what it is. What can I do?" said Azarenka. "I haven't done anything wrong, but I can't control the crowd. I'm not sure that a lot of people were understanding what's happening. "But if people are going to be focusing only on handshakes or a quite drunk crowd, booing in the end, that's a shame." Meanwhile, All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton said on Monday that Wimbledon had no plans to issue such a statement.

"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," she said. "I think we have an incredibly knowledgeable audience at Wimbledon and I think in most part they would understand what was happening." She admitted it is impossible to control the crowd, calling for the sporting action to be centre stage.

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