Wimbledon: Victoria Azarenka 'did nothing wrong' by not shaking hands with Elina Svitolina after loss, says Laura Robson

Belarus' Victoria Azarenka did «nothing wrong» by not shaking hands with her Ukrainian opponent Elina Svitolina after their fourth-round match at Wimbledon, says Laura Robson. Azarenka was booed off Court 1 by those who attended the thriller, which Svitolina won 2-6 6-4 7-6(9), after she waved towards Svitolina near the net rather than offer a handshake. Ad Svitolina has previously publicly stated that she will not shake hands with a Russian or Belarusian player because of the war in Ukraine which began in February 2022.

WimbledonSvitolina beats Azarenka in final set tiebreak after 16-year-old Andreeva makes historyA DAY AGO Robson believes Azarenka did not do anything wrong by respecting Svitolina's decision. «It was totally fair,» said Robson when appearing on Eurosport's Wimbledon coverage. «I don't think the crowd understood that Svitolina was never going to shake her hand.

»She said 'thank you', went to her bag, did everything you thought she was going to do if you follow tennis week in, week out. «For the crowd to react like this, I don't think anyone appreciated it — most of all Svitolina. »That was an absolute battle of a performance that both gave and for the match to be about anything other than tennis is so disappointing.

«Azarenka did nothing wrong. For her to be talking about that after the match rather than the tennis is so disappointing.» When Azarenka was asked by reporters after the match what she made of the crowd reaction, she said: «I can't control the crowd. I'm not sure that a lot of people were understanding what's happening.

»It's probably been a lot of Pimm's throughout the day. It wasn't fair. What can I do? «I feel like it's been pretty consistent for the last 18, 19 months.