THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 9, 2023

Victoria Azarenka

Press Conference

E. SVITOLINA/V. Azarenka

2-6, 6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference of Victoria Azarenka.

We will go straight to questions.

Q. How disappointed were you with the reaction as you walked off court?

VICTORIA AZARENKA: What do you think? What do you think how was the crowd?

Q. I would imagine you're very unhappy.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: No, but what do you think?

Q. Sorry?

VICTORIA AZARENKA: How do you think that crowd was in the end? What's your opinion?

Q. I thought that was very unfair.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: Hmm. I think we agree on that.

Q. Can I ask you about the gesture you made as you came off. It's not a gesture I was very familiar with. I wondered what that meant.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: I actually have no idea. I don't know. I have no idea. I won't even be able to duplicate what I did. So it was, yeah...

Q. Can I ask about your relationship with Elina. Seems like there was a bit of healthy respect at the end. Could you tell me a bit about that.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: My relationship with her? What? Like throughout our lives or what?

Q. You can start there and talk us through to now and after the match. At the end of the match I think you raised your hand, she sort of looked at you. There was an element of respect there, I think. I wanted to know your opinion on that, what you felt it was like.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think that you guys are picking on every single move and make such a big story out of that that there is really no point to do that.

I know Elina for a very long time. I've always had a good relationship with her. And the circumstances, it is what it is, and that's it.

I don't think that talking about every little gesture makes any difference or is a big story. I'm not saying you particularly, but a lot of people keep talking about it like it's, I don't know, changing somebody's lives, which it's not.

So the bigger you guys are making it, the longer it's going to be a conversation. So in my opinion it's not a conversation that has any substance, any change, any effect, or really anything.

Q. Were you surprised by the crowd reaction? Up until then, it really hadn't been that hostile.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: I can't control the crowd. I'm not sure that a lot of people were understanding what's happening, so... It's probably been a lot of pimps -- Pimm's throughout the day.

Q. Pimm's.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: Pimm's, yeah.

What we agreed on: it wasn't fair. It is what it is. What can I do?

Q. It did seem that they didn't understand that you weren't the aggressor, as it were, in the situation. It was Svitolina who was not going to shake your hand. You seemed to acknowledge each other, yet the crowd turned on you. You're almost the victim here, aren't you?

VICTORIA AZARENKA: Victim? Victim that somebody didn't shake my hand? Please. I think we've got bigger --

Q. The crowd booed you when you hadn't done anything wrong.

VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, I feel like it's been pretty consistent for the last 18, 19 months. I haven't done anything wrong, but keep getting different treatment sometimes.

But what can I say about the crowd? There is nothing to say. She doesn't want to shake hands with Russian, Belarusian people. I respected her decision. What should I have done? Stayed and waited? Like, I mean, there's no thing that I could do that would have been right, so I just did what I thought was respectful towards her decision.

But this conversation about shaking hands is not a life-changing conversation. So if you guys want to keep talking about it, bring it up, make it a big deal, headlines, whatever it is, keep going.

I thought it was a great tennis match. If people are going to be focusing only on handshakes or crowd, quite drunk crowd, booing in the end, that's a shame. That's probably what it is in the end of the day.

It was a tennis match. We are here, tennis match. Nobody's changing lives here. We are playing tennis. We're doing our jobs. That's it.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the match. Obviously you have a strong history against her. What did you feel was different today?

VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think she plays much more freely with, like, no pressure right now. Will it change later? You never know. I think it might.

To play, like, free and obviously a lot of people supporting her, I don't know if it's advantage for her, but I would think that's part of it.

And, yeah, she was very solid today. It was really about flip of the coin I think. It was very, very close. I probably will look back and see what I can do in terms of adjustments. I know I can play better tennis, for sure, and move on.

In the end of the day it's a tennis match. It's done. Nothing I can do to bring it back. It's going to be a good learning experience for me to keep working hard, to come out next time and try again.