World No. 2 Belarusian Arina Sobolenko canceled the open press conference at the French Open and was forced to speak only to trusted journalists. All because of the provocative questions from the Ukrainians, who simply exhausted the Belarusian over the past few months.
The background of the refusal World tennis star Sobolenko at Roland Garros 2023 has to fight opponents not only on the court, but also during the post-match events. In the first round of the tournament, Arina confidently outplayed Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in two sets, after which she refused to shake hands with her. Fans booed the Ukrainian for her behavior, and Sobolenko at first thought that they were whistling at her and even began to apologize.
Arina's adventures did not end there. After reaching the third round of the French Open, a Ukrainian journalist attacked her at a press conference. She importunately asked the Belarusian woman the same questions related to the conflict in Ukraine and the attitude to the policy of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. In 2020, Sobolenko signed a letter in his support.
The poor tennis player politely and diplomatically tried to explain to the Ukrainian woman that she had already answered these questions many times and could not say anything new. But she did not let up, so the press conference moderator had to intervene in the process, who had no choice but to silence the journalist. Somehow the situation was resolved. However, Sobolenko made certain conclusions.
«The media is waiting for questions about politics» Obviously, she is completely tired of dealing with annoying journalists, mostly from one country, who from time to time try to provoke her. After the victory in the next match at Roland Garros over the Russian woman Kamilla Rakhimova, Arina decided to refuse open communication with the press, instead making a closed press conference, at which she said the following.
“I know that the media is waiting for questions that are more about politics than my tennis. For many months now I have been answering these questions in tournaments and expressing my feelings and thoughts very clearly. These questions do not bother me after matches. I know that I should answer journalists for questions not related to my matches, but on Wednesday I did not feel safe at a press conference, «the tennis player said.
It's hard to disagree with Arina. At the current French Open, indeed, politics is discussed more than sports, and one of the most popular topics is whether Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian tennis players shook hands. Although there is no intrigue here. Ukrainian women did not shake hands with ours and Belarusians, and continue to do so. The last example is Elina Svitolina and Anna Blinkova following the results of today's match at Roland Garros.
It's good that the organizers of the tournament were sympathetic to Sobolenko's decision on closed communication with the press. Apparently, there will be no fines in her direction, although this is a rare case when a tennis player officially refuses to hold a press conference. But it seems that even in France they realized that political lawlessness had gone too far.