16-year-old Elizaveta Kotlyar lost to Vlada Mincheva at the start of the junior Australian Open.
Ukrainian and Russian tennis players Elizaveta Kotlyar and Vlada Mincheva shook hands after the match of the Australian Open junior championship in Melbourne. Mincheva beat the Ukrainian, after which the athletes shook hands.
Kotlyar herself has not yet explained her action. However, her father Konstantin expressed his opinion on this matter. According to him, his daughter “does not yet have real experience of competing in such significant competitions as Grandslam tournaments.”
“Unfortunately, my daughter did not feel calm, her emotions were overflowing, so she did not fully control her behavior. She automatically performed the post-match ritual – she shook her opponent’s hand, but did not understand that behind the net was a representative of the country that committed the attack on our homeland,” – emphasized the father of the young tennis player.
He called his daughter’s action “a mistake for which Lisa is very sorry.”
“She assures that she will never allow anything like this again. She will always remember who is who. In fact, she is a sincere patriot of Ukraine, she always was, is and will remain in the future,” said Konstantin Kotlyar.
As is known, Ukrainian tennis players, after the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, abandoned the traditional handshake after games with rivals from Russia and Belarus.
Sports and war in Ukraine – latest news
Olympic fencing champion Olga Kharlan sharply condemned the IOC’s decision to allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in the 2024 Olympics. According to her, representatives of aggressor countries have no place at international competitions.
Earlier, Ukrainian sports stars opposed the admission of Russians to the 2024 Olympics. Andrey Yarmolenko, Marta Kostyuk, Zhan Belenyuk, Mikhail Romanchuk, Anna Ryzhikova and Yaroslava Maguchikh took part in the video.
