Ukrainian tennis player refused to shake hands with Russian woman after defeat

Russian tennis player Lyudmila Samsonova defeated Ukrainian Angelina Kalinina in the second round match of the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The meeting ended with a score of 6:1, 6:3 in favor of our compatriot. However, the Ukrainian athlete refused to shake the Russian’s hand after her victory. About this on Thursday, February 8, reported “Lenta.ru”.

In addition to refusing the traditional tennis handshake, Kalinina also did not exchange racket touches with the Russian representative – sometimes this gesture replaces the handshake customary in this sport.

This is not the first time that a Ukrainian woman refuses to comply with the accepted rules of sportsmanship. At the end of May 2023, she even had to explain why she refused to shake the hand of the Russian woman Veronika Kudermetova, who defeated her in the tournament, with whom Kalinina fought in the semifinals of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 category tournament, which took place in Rome. The Ukrainian tennis player then stated that her refusal was due to the fact that her opponent was from Russia. “Yes, this is a sport, I understand, but this is also a political thing,” Kalinina said at the time, adding that “in general this is unacceptable in such a situation.” “So it’s nothing personal.”

Previously, the head of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev commented refusal of Ukrainian women to shake hands with rivals from our country after matches. “I believe that sport is outside of politics; it must adhere to certain standards of behavior that should be present in all sports,” he emphasized. At the same time, over the past two years, news that Ukrainian tennis players do not shake hands with athletes from Russia and Belarus and refuse to take joint photographs after matches have actually become the norm. Spectators most often boo athletes for this behavior.