Latvian tennis player, world number 11 Jelena Ostapenko, refused to shake hands with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. The incident occurred at the end of the match between the two rivals in the 1/8 final of the tournament held in Doha.
The meeting ended with Azarenka’s score of 6:0 and 6:3. After the final rally, Victoria showed her intention to shake her opponent’s hand, but Ostapenko handed her a racket in response. The Belarusian refused to respond with his racket.
It should be noted that the Latvian Seimas on February 1 adopted changes to the sports law that prohibit the national teams of this country from competing with athletes from Russia and Belarus, even if they perform as neutral athletes. The ban does not apply to individual competitions, where competitors can be matched against each other in a tournament group, especially since it happened in Doha.
In addition, Latvia cannot organize competitions in team sports in which representatives of Russia and Belarus participate. The changes envisage the refusal to organize such tournaments at adult, youth and youth levels.
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