Elina Svitolina’s stance on shaking hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents does not depend on the result of the match, and she stood by it once again after her third-round US Open exit. The Ukrainian world No. 9 fell to Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought battle under the lights at Louis Armstrong Stadium, and once the match ended, there was no handshake at the net between the two.

Kalinskaya, the 21st seed, took control early to win the first set before Svitolina responded by cleaning up her game and breaking serve repeatedly to level things in the second. The Russian recovered from 14 double faults in the game, on the back of an exceptional second serve, winning 78% of points. The Russian now moves on to face Emma Navarro in the round of 16.

It wasn’t a random decision not to shake hands. Svitolina has remained on this stance since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when she dropped out of the Monterrey Open because she didn’t want to face a Russian opponent and shortly afterward said she would refuse handshakes with Russian and Belarusian players going forward. 

Since then, she has held on to her stance, not shaking hands with several opponents, from Russia’s Anna Blinkova at the 2023 French Open, where she was booed by a portion of the crowd, to Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka at that year’s Wimbledon. Now, organizers even put a message up on the big screen that there would be no handshake. For example, in the fourth-round match against Mirra Andreeva and a semifinal against Aryna Sabalenka at this year’s Australian Open.

Recently, she did not shake hands with Anastasia Potapova at Toronto, despite the player changing her nationality. Subsequently, in that same tournament, in the quarterfinals, she did not shake hands with Ekaterina Alexandrova. 

Elina Svitolina has explained her reasoning in detail on multiple occasions. There’s political involvement in not shaking hands, as well as her own personal solidarity towards the soldiers fighting on the front lines. 

Players on the other side of the net have not resisted her position as much, though there have been some reactions depending on the opponent. Sabalenka, following their meeting in Australia, merely stated she respected the decision. “They’ve been doing it for so long, it’s their decision, and I respect that,” she said. Kalinskaya didn’t respond following the match, but was occupied celebrating the win for reaching the first time in the round of 16 at the US Open.