Even after the change of passes
Kostyuk still won’t shake Potapova’s hand!
One trickier than the other—two big questions had arisen at the WTA 1000 in Madrid ahead of the semifinal match between Anastasia Potapova and Marta Kostyuk! First: Which of the two top players would advance to the final? And second: Would the Ukrainian Kostyuk refuse to shake hands with the Russian-born, newly naturalized Austrian Potapova, as she had done in previous matches? The quick answer to the latter question: Yes!
The background was that since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against her homeland, Kostyuk has refused to shake hands with players from Russia and its ally Belarus after matches. In addition, she has repeatedly called on professionals from both countries to clearly condemn the war.
Even though Potapova competed against Kostyuk today not as a Russian but as an Austrian, she logically could not shed her Russian heritage with the passport change that took place in the fall—and quite obviously, the change of nationality held no significance for the Ukrainian. After converting the match point, she did exchange a brief handshake with the chair umpire, but not with Potapova...
No handshake between Kostyuk and Potapova last year either
In their first meeting at the WTA tournament in Miami in March 2023, just as in their most recent encounter in Madridlast year, there was no handshake between Kostyuk and Potapova.
As seen in the video above, while the Ukrainian did shake hands with the chair umpire, she had only a dismissive wave of her racket for Potapova, who was still competing as a Russian at the time.
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