{"id":101854,"date":"2025-08-28T09:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101854\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:44:08","slug":"tennis-handshakes-controversy-and-the-spectacle-of-elite-sport-notice-the-frost-on-the-fingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101854\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis handshakes, controversy and the spectacle of elite sport: \u2018Notice the frost on the fingers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. \u2014 Post-match speeches for the losers in finals. A fiendish scoring system. At-times ambiguous rules.<\/p>\n

Tennis feels designed to cause irritation and aggravation like few other sports, and the handshake at the end of a match is its apex. Two elite athletes, who have spent the previous few hours on a small rectangular battlefield with tensions gradually ratcheting up, are then provided with the perfect incubator for all of those simmering resentments, while being asked to politely say \u201cwell done\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wednesday at the U.S. Open<\/a>, Jelena Ostapenko, the tennis player most synonymous with fractious handshakes, furiously confronted Taylor Townsend<\/a> at the end of their second-round match. Ostapenko, who had just been beaten 7-5, 6-1, told Townsend she should have said sorry for a shot that clipped the top of the net but stayed in play, known as a net cord.<\/p>\n

Townsend said she did not have to say sorry before Ostapenko appeared to repeat the phrase \u201cyou have no education\u201d three times. Townsend walked away, shook hands with the chair umpire and asked the crowd to make some noise for her win. In her news conference, Townsend said Ostapenko would have to speak for whether or not her quotes were a dog whistle; Ostapenko posted statements on her social media in which she said she had never been a racist and criticized Townsend for behaving inappropriately because she was playing at home.<\/p>\n

Despite being an outlier, the handshake altercation exposed the theater of politeness at the heart of one of tennis\u2019 fundamental traditions<\/a>. After engaging in the sporting equivalent of hand-to-hand combat, players are expected to put aside any emotions they are feeling in a moment of artificial grace broadcast to the world.<\/p>\n

Ostapenko\u2019s behavior with Townsend went far beyond her usual handshake protocol, which had until Wednesday become a harmless meme in the tennis world. Eight years ago at this venue, Ostapenko \u2014 at the time the French Open champion \u2014 introduced herself to the U.S. Open crowd by pointedly looking away from Daria Kasatkina when they shook hands at the end of their second-round match.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotice the frost on the fingers,\u201d the broadcaster and former world No 33 Mary Carillo quipped on Tennis Channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotice the frost on the fingers.\u201d \u2013 Mary Carillo
\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa@DKasatkina<\/a> def. \ud83c\uddf1\ud83c\uddfbJelena #Ostapenko<\/a> on Day 6.
The post-match handshake? ICY. \u2744\ufe0f#USOpen<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/n16FAW169G<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) September 3, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

At the start of 2024, Ostapenko lost to two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus three times in seven weeks.<\/p>\n

The first two were no-look, while on the third occasion, Ostapenko held out her racket rather than her hand, prompting a superb eye-roll from her opponent. \u201cI can\u2019t speak for how she feels and why she does it,\u201d Azarenka said at the time. \u201cSome of her line callings, I mean, it can be a bit comical \u2026 that\u2019s just how she is. I don\u2019t necessarily judge. I\u2019m just there to play a match.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the Azarenka triptych, Ostapenko\u2019s frostiness appeared partly geopolitical. Ostapenko has Ukrainian family and, at the time, had a Ukrainian doubles partner; Belarus is a supporter of Russia and its ongoing war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

No sport pits Russian and Belarusian athletes against Ukrainians and their allies as regularly as tennis, and none of them have a designated moment of coming together like tennis does. After the invasion in February 2022, players from the warring nations stopped shaking each other\u2019s hands. At Wimbledon in 2023, that policy debuted a year later than at other events, because Wimbledon barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. Fans booed players who refused to shake hands because of this gap, before they slowly became acquainted with what was going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really see [handshakes] happening because it\u2019s just a terrible, terrible feeling,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s Elina Svitolina said at the Australian Open. \u201cI do not wish for anyone to ever experience this. To wake up to the news of when your friends die on the front line, and being killed by Russian soldiers, it\u2019s something that (is) really, really heavy on my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a reason behind it,\u201d Ostapenko said of her snubs of Azarenka in an interview last May,<\/a> before demurring to elaborate on those reasons and evading a direct question about whether it related to Ukraine. Russia\u2019s invasion is the cause of one of the only times at which no handshake is expected at the end of a match.<\/p>\n

The seriousness of this situation, and that of Townsend\u2019s with Ostapenko, further underscores the quandary at the heart of the handshake. It is on one level a cursory gesture; on another it is freighted with meaning beyond the scope of two tennis players saying \u201cgood match\u201d to each other.<\/p>\n

And while Ostapenko may be the face \u2014 or palm \u2014 of the handshake\u2019s cultural relevance in the sport, the idiosyncrasies go way beyond one player as a result. Townsend said she has experienced handshake aggro previously, referencing a match at the Charlottesville Challenger against Anastasia Rodionova 11 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsia Muhammad actually had to take me off the court because I was so upset,\u201d Townsend said her news conference. \u201cThe girl that I played was so disrespectful. There were no ball kids. Girl was slapping balls to the third and fourth court. I have to go walk and get the balls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up winning and said some really, like, nasty things. Again, it was one of the things I\u2019m, like \u2014 I\u2019m just not going to tolerate disrespect. You\u2019re not going to disrespect me in my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year has had a steady stream of handshake controversies, most of them in the usual realm of handshake disputes: Gloriously petty. Yulia Putintseva, also known for her at-times tense nature on court, was involved in a scrap with Maria Sakkari in June after losing to the Greek player at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany. Sakkari took exception to Putintseva\u2019s no-look handshake, and after being told to \u201cgo f\u2014- herself\u201d said, \u201cf\u2014-ing hell, I\u2019m what?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria Sakkari and Yulia Putintseva got heated during their handshake in Bad Homburg \ud83d\ude33<\/p>\n

Watch the full clip here and read more from @Tennis<\/a> below \ud83d\udc47 https:\/\/t.co\/Xi8KegqHOu<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wvS84NILKu<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

On the men\u2019s side, world No 3 Alexander Zverev could barely look rising French star Arthur Fils after the Hamburg Open final, which Fils won. Zverev, who lost the match, then said at the Australian Open: \u201cI think Hamburg against Arthur the handshake wasn\u2019t great from my side. I didn\u2019t like some of the things that, yeah, happened in the match. Everybody thought it was the underarm serve or something like that. It wasn\u2019t the underarm serve. It was more the checking of the marks, really doubting me as a sportsman, fairness. That was kind of a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso in the end I realized that it was kind of more my mistake that the handshake happened like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of months later, Fils and Stefanos Tsitsipas had a testy handshake following an incident in which Tsitsipas smashed a passing shot at Fils\u2019 body from close range \u2014 a legal tactic, but frowned upon. A common denominator in these confrontations is the way in which a small incident can build up in players\u2019 minds over the course of a match, before spilling over at the handshake, often inflated far beyond its actual significance.<\/p>\n

At the Madrid Open in April, after an earlier dispute over an underarm serve, there was the odd sight of Damir Dzhumur going to shake Mattia Belucci\u2019s hand, the latter refusing it, then going back in for the handshake, which was in turn refused by Dzhumur.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he moved his hand there is no way I would give you another hand because I\u2019m not a fool,\u201d Dzhumur said in an interview afterwards.<\/p>\n

Some players fall foul of the forced niceties of handshake convention despite not doing anything out of turn. The Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, who is currently out injured, has developed a reputation for unfriendly handshakes, but is straightforward about why.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I lost, I will give you just a basic respect and that\u2019s it,\u201d she said at a news conference in January. \u201cThat\u2019s why you will not see me lose one match with a happy face to the opponent.\u201d She added, with a laugh: \u201cIf you saw that on me, that is very strange, which means I don\u2019t care about that match on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is another of the fundamentals of the handshake: it is an accord of respect which has been pushed beyond its basic requirement of acknowledging that a tennis match has taken place. Zheng even forgot to shake hands with Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA Tour Finals in November, something Tsitsipas did too after beating Jan-Lennard Struff at the Madrid Open in April. Competition can be so absorbing that the requirement to shake hands can get lost, showcasing its essential unimportance in the grand scheme of a match \u2014 and the oversized attention paid to it \u2014 as well as the way it masks the brutal realities of elite individual sport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zheng Qinwen\u2019s \u201ccold\u201d handshakes more accurately betray the fact that elite tennis players do not like to lose. (Clive Brunskill \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Still, players don\u2019t mind the handshake convention. But they don\u2019t mind the conflict it sometimes causes either. Frances Tiafoe said Wednesday after the Townsend-Ostapenko incident that: \u201cIf there\u2019s a situation that needs to be had and spoken about, why not talk about it? You know, if you\u2019re that p\u2014ed, then sit here and talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I get it. It\u2019s heat of the battle, man. You\u2019re playing for livelihood. You\u2019re trying to move forward. Money, all these other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are heated sometimes, and your opponent might be on whatever, and you just somehow you\u2019ve got to figure it out. This guy has got to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniil Medvedev, himself no stranger to controversy, including being given a $42,500 fine this week for his antics against Benjamin Bonzi Sunday night, said in January that he thinks tennis players should be \u201ca bit more open\u201d to cold handshakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand some people when they lose, you\u2019re frustrated, you don\u2019t want to smile at your opponent that just beat you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Paula Badosa said during an interview in January that all the talk of handshakes amounts to \u201cbull\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to be like, \u2018hey, she\u2019s still my friend.\u2019 And in that moment, you don\u2019t feel it. Of course, you don\u2019t feel it, but when everything cools down, you\u2019re OK again. But in that moment, it\u2019s tough. And I understand when there\u2019s a cold handshake and then when there\u2019s a nice, a beautiful hug. So it\u2019s very emotional,\u201d Badosa said.<\/p>\n

For Townsend, the Ostapenko incident plays out along a binary of its own. It was disrespectful, confronting and unpleasant. But it was also something, she said, that she could put on her TikTok and leave in the past. The spectacle of the handshake, this piece of tennis stagecraft that distills hours of intense competition into two hands clasped together, is likely to endure far longer.<\/p>\n

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton \/\u00a0The Athletic)<\/p>\n