Hyderabad: Ukrainian tennis player Yelyzaveta Kotliar has issued an apology for shaking hands with her Russian rival Vlada Minchev in Junior Girls' Singles at the Australian Open after facing criticism from the national tennis federation.
The incident occurred during the first-round match when Kotliar unknowingly broke the underlying but unwritten rule of not shaking hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents due to the ongoing dispute at home.
The Ukrainian Tennis Federation (UTF) has called this moment ‘unpleasant’ as they have already circulated the message to Ukrainian tennis players not to shake hands with representatives of the ‘aggressor countries’.
UTF has shared post regarding the incident on Facebook and wrote, “The Tennis Federation of Ukraine supports the joint position of Ukrainian tennis players not to shake hands with representatives of aggressor countries. Our leading players are aware of this and support this position. But there can always be mistakes. Such a mistake happened today with our player.”
The federation then contacted her 16-year-old’s father to discuss the incident which can boost Russia to begin its dirty work again.
“Yelyzaveta Kotliar is still a minor, so we contacted her father, Konstantin, for his comments on the incident that allowed Russian propaganda to start its dirty work,” UTF added.
However, the Ukrainian’s father admitted his daughter’s mistake.
“Unfortunately, my daughter did not feel calm, her emotions were running high, so she did not fully control her behaviour. She performed the post-match ritual on the machine - she shook her opponent's hand, not realising that behind the net was a representative of the country that attacked our Motherland,“ he stated.
He mentioned that she lacks the experience of handling the pressure that a player goes through after losing a match in a tournament that has a rich history.
“The league is only 16 years old and does not yet have real experience of competing in such significant competitions as the Grand Slam series tournaments, the pinnacle of both professional and youth tennis. There is an extraordinary atmosphere, which in itself puts a lot of pressure on the athletes. At the beginning of a career, it is difficult to cope with such things and not be nervous,” he added.
“It was definitely a mistake that Lisa deeply regrets and assures that she will never allow anything like that again. Will always remember who is who. In fact, she is a sincere patriot of Ukraine, has always been, is, and will remain so in the future," he further cited.
The incident reflects the complex intersection of sports and geopolitics, with athletes finding themselves entangled in the larger context of international conflicts. Notably, this can be seen in cricket as India doesn’t play bilateral series against Pakistan and then Australia have denied playing a white ball series against Afghanistan due to the Taliban conflict.
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