A Ukranian junior tennis star has come under fire from her own country over a handshake with a Russian opponent. Follow live below!
Yelyzaveta Kotliar, 16, defied the unwritten rule when she made the gesture to Russia’s Vlada Mincheva after losing their Australian Open junior match 6-2 6-4.
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It came as a big surprise given the stance of Ukranian players to not shake hands with opponents from Russia and Belarus due to the ongoing conflict between their countries
The Ukrainian Tennis Federation described it as an “unpleasant incident” and said it had been a mistake on the teen’s part.
Her father, Konstantin Kotliar, spoke on behalf of his daughter to explain the situation.
“The atmosphere here is extraordinary, which in itself puts a lot of pressure on the athletes,” he said in a statement released by the UTF.
“At the beginning of your career, it’s hard to cope with this and not be nervous. “Unfortunately, my daughter didn’t feel calm, her emotions were running high, so she wasn’t completely in control of her behaviour.
“She automatically performed the post-match ritual, not realising that behind the net there was a representative of the country who launched the attack on our homeland.
“It was definitely a mistake that Liza regrets and assures us that she will never allow anything like that to happen again.”
BIG WINNER IN SCHEDULE CHAOS
One player is set to be given an advantage thanks to the Australian Open’s schedule changes, made in attempt to avoid delays.
In the very surprising top half of the women’s draw, unseeded pair Linda Noskova and Dayana Yastremska are facing off in one quarter-final to begin Wednesday’s play at 12pm AEDT.
But the other quarter-final in their half, 12th seed Qinwen Zheng against unseeded Anna Kalinskaya, won’t be played until the night session.
This is because the tournament now only schedules two matches in the day session, down from three, and has to play two men’s and two women’s quarter-finals on centre court on one day.
Two men’s matches cannot be played in the night session, since they could both run five sets, and organisers would not schedule both men’s matches in the day session because the TV broadcaster would be left fuming over the likely lower ratings.
But it leaves the Noskova-Yastremska winner likely to have an extra six to eight hours of recovery on the Kalinskaya-Zheng winner – which actually matters because their semi-final will be played tomorrow (Thursday).
In previous years both women’s quarter-finals in the same half of the draw were played in the same session to minimise the recovery gap.
On the men’s side – with their semi-final to be played on Friday – Daniil Medvedev faces Hubert Hurkacz, before in the second match of the night session, Carlos Alcaraz battles Alex Zverev.
Zverev has been accused by multiple ex-partners of domestic abuse and is facing trial in Germany this May.
DAY 11 ORDER OF PLAY (Quarter-finals – all times AEDT)
Rod Laver Arena
Not before 12pm: Linda Noskova (CZE) vs Dayana Yastremska (UKR)
Not before 1:30pm: No.9 Hubert Hurkacz (POL) vs No.3 Daniil Medvedev (RUS)
From 7:15pm: Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) vs No.12 Qinwen Zheng (CHN)
Followed by: No.6 Alexander Zverev (GER) vs No.2 Carlos Alcaraz (ESP)
