World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka skipped her post-match press conference on Friday afternoon shortly after advancing to the fourth round of the French Open.
Sabalenka cited her mental health and well-being as primary drivers in taking that stance. The decision not to hold an open-air interview was unanimously given the all-clear by the tournament organizers.
Instead, the French Open authorities selected a handful of journalists who held the presser behind closed doors and which was limited to questions that were tennis-related.
Following her third-round win over Kamilla Rakhimova, Sabalenka was nowhere to be seen in the French Open media room where players must follow protocol and take part in post-match press conferences.
Sabalenka’s decision not to hold an open-air interview in the press room comes on the backdrop of a tense exchange between herself and a Ukrainian journalist on Wednesday.
Sabalenka was bombarded with questions on the current invasion of Ukraine by Russia–in which Belarus is a close ally of Russia–by a staunch Ukrainian journalist who asked her to condemn the war in the open-air session following her second-round win on Wednesday.
Sabalenka, feeling coerced, politely declined to comment.
Here is an excerpt of Aryna Sabalenka’s heated interaction with a Ukrainian journalist
Tense exchange at Aryna Sabalenka's press conference, when a Ukrainian journalist asked her a pointed question about her previous support for Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko: pic.twitter.com/dHJK0Cuysm
— Molly McElwee (@molly_mcelwee) May 31, 2023
On Friday, Sabalenka told reporters, “For my own mental health and well-being, I decided to take myself out of this situation today and the tournament has supported me in this. On Wednesday I didn’t feel safe in the press conference.”
Sabalenka asked the tournament to skip the traditional press conference and instead spoke to a few journalists selected by the #RolandGarros organization: pic.twitter.com/XDYbZKbGAA
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) June 2, 2023
Sabalenka has been the subject of a massive backlash from Ukrainian journalists and felt the full wrath of Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk, whom she defeated in the first round.
Kostyuk did not shake hands with Sabalenka after their tempestuous match, prompting boos from the fans directed at Kostyuk. The World #39 emphatically accused Sabalenka of failing to speak about the war and admitted she has no respect for her.
Sabalenka is now 10-0 in Grand Slam matches in 2023 and has made the second week of the clay slam for the first time.
After her win over Rakhimova, she said, “In the middle of the second set, I thought, ‘I never get through this one,’ but then I was like, ‘Okay, Aryna, this is not something you have to be focused on.'”
“I put away these thoughts really quickly in the match. Of course, this win gave me so much belief in myself here in Paris, so I know that on the next match, I will go there and do everything I can to win another match.”
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
