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<\/a><\/p>\nAfter Svitolina\u2019s masterful 83-minute win, Andreeva\u2014knowing that Ukrainian players won\u2019t shake hands with Russians and Belarusians in protest of Russia\u2019s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine\u2014shook hands with the chair umpire, walked behind the chair umpire\u2019s seat, picked up her Wilson racquet bag and walked off the court eliciting a chorus of boos from some fans in Laver Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some say AO organizers dropped the ball in this case by failing to notify in Rod Laver Arena\u2014either by an announcement or message on the big screens\u2014that many Ukrainians do not engage in handshakes with Russian and Belarusian players due to the war. Others on social media said Aussie fans should know by now of Svitolina\u2019s stance in not shaking hands with Russians and Belarusians.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old Svitolina avenged her quarterfinal loss to Andreeva at Indian Wells last March. Andreeva went on to win the Indian Wells championship.<\/p>\n
In this rematch, Svitolina shredded the eighth seed\u2019s second serve, winning 15 of 20 second-serve points and breaking serve five times. Svitolina, who defeated Andreeva\u2019s Olympic silver-medal winning doubles partner Diana Schnaider in round three, has not dropped a set en route to a quarterfinal clash vs. third-seeded Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important for me to put pressure, because if I let her to take the advantage in the rally, she can strike the ball really well, and she knows how to win matches, to win tournaments. For me it was important, yeah, just to try to take the advantage first and try to find a way, because she\u2019s a very tricky player,\u201d Svitolina said. \u201cShe mix up the pace, the length of the ball, so you have to adjust really quick, and you have to make these split-second decisions to either go or try to direct the ball in the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second time this month a high-profile match has ended on a controversial note Down Under.<\/p>\n
A frosty exchange followed the final in Brisbane between Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.<\/p>\n
Kostyuk continued Ukrainian players\u2019 tradition of declining the post-match handshake with Belarusian and Russian players.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, in an apparent dig at Kostyuk\u2019s reported comments on some stars\u2019 higher testosterone levels, kissed both of her biceps following her 6-4, 6-3 sweep and second straight Brisbane title.<\/p>\n
During the trophy presentation, Kostyuk didn\u2019t cite Sabalenka\u2019s name, instead praising the spirit and pride of her Ukrainian compatriots and the pain she feels seeing suffering in her homeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say a few words about Ukraine,\u201d Kostyuk said. \u201cI play every day with a pain in my heart. There are thousands of people who are without light and warm water right now, it\u2019s minus 20 degrees outside right now, so it\u2019s very, very painful to live this reality every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was incredibly moved and happy to see so many Ukrainian fans and flags here this week \u2013 Slava Ukraini.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, January 25, 2026Photo credit: Australian Open Facebook Elina Svitolina is making major noise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-432710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}