Marta Kostyuk lashed out at the Roland Garros Chatrier court crowd who booed her on Sunday as she failed to shake hands with Aryna Sabalenka after losing 6-3, 6-2 in the first round.
The Ukrainian who went down in just over an hour to the WTA No. 2 from Belarus, had no apologies for her gesture as the Russian invasion of her country heads into a 16th month.
“I did not expect it. I have no reaction to it but people should be, honestly, embarrassed,” the No. 39 said.
She added that the crowd reaction may come back to haunt them. “I want to see people react to it in 10 years when the war is over.
“I think they will also realise what they did.”
Kostyuk said that after first coming out in support of her country against he invasion, she had to dodge some reactions.
“I almost all social media from my phone. I don’t read anything. I close the comments.”
She added that Russian and Belarus players keep their distance in locker rooms around the Tour.
“There are like, five Ukrainian girls in top 100. It’s not that tough, when the war began, to come and talk to us for a couple of minutes.
“But it was just mouths shut, eyes to the ground; they walk and they don’t say anything.
“I see these players every single week in the locker room, and they don’t have the audacity (decency) to come up and talk to me for 15 months already.”
