(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Aryna Sabalenka shut down a political question after her French Open exit as the Belarusian asked the journalists to at least one press conference they only talk about tennis. In her first two post-match press conferences at Roland Garros, Sabalenka got into a heated exchange with a Ukrainian journalist – which led to the Belarusian skipping the next two pressers due to “feeling unsafe.” Sabalenka returned to the press room on Tuesday and answered directly that she was not a supporter of the war nor Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
After suffering a surprise French Open semifinal defeat to Karolina Muchova, Sabalenka was asked if she felt safe following her remarks made about the war and president Lukashenko two days earlier. “I don’t want to talk about politics today.
I made all my statements. You have it. I don’t want to talk about politics today. Let’s just talk about tennis. Give me some rest, please, from politics (smiling),” Sabalenka said after her French Open exit.
Now that Sabalenka clearly stated she supports neither the war nor Lukashenko it’s great to see the reporters moving on and asking her something else…
