French Open 2023: Daria Kasatkina 'leaving Paris with very bitter feeling' after boos

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Daria Kasatkina gives Elina Svitolina a thumbs up at end of the matchImage source, Reuters
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In the absence of a handshake, Russian player Kasatkina gave a thumbs-up to Ukraine's Svitolina at the end of the match

French Open 2023

Dates: 28 May-11 June. Venue: Roland Garros, Paris.

Coverage: Live text and radio commentaries of selected matches across BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app.

Russian Daria Kasatkina says she is "leaving Paris with a very bitter feeling" after being booed at the end of her French Open match against Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.

There were some boos on Court Suzanne Lenglen despite Kasatkina giving a thumbs-up to Svitolina at the end of their fourth-round match on Sunday.

Kasatkina has spoken out against Russia's war in Ukraine and knew Svitolina would stick to her policy of not shaking hands with Russian or Belarusian players.

Svitolina, who beat ninth seed Kasatkina 6-4 7-6 (7-5), acknowledged the 26-year-old at the end of the match and said she had been "brave" to criticise her nation's actions.

On Monday, Kasatkina tweeted:, external "Leaving Paris with a very bitter feeling. All this days, after every match I've played in Paris, I always appreciate and thanked crowd for support and being there for the players. But yesterday I was booed for just being respectful on my opponent's position not to shake hands.

"Me and Elina showed respect to each other after a tough match but leaving the court like that was the worse part of yesterday."

She added: "Be better, love each other. Don't spread hate. Try to make this world better. I will love Roland Garros no matter what, always and forever. See you next year."

On day one of this year's French Open, Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk was booed off court when she avoided shaking hands with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

Belarus is an ally of Russia and allowed troops to use its territory to launch last year's invasion of Ukraine.

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