Wimbledon Chief Executive, Sally Bolton took in a press conference on Monday morning amid the storm that took place surrounding Victoria Azarenka and Elina Svitolina on Court One.
What was a superb tie descended into chaos as fans booed Azarenka for not giving Svitolina a handshake as was the prerogative of the Ukrainian.
Many rallied behind Azarenka and Svitolina saying that potential statements are needed from the tournament to address the handshakes but Bolton dispelled that notion.
She said they can't control the crowds and they are usually respectful towards players despite the theme seen at Roland Garros of almost jumping on the bandwagon in booing.
“We aren't in a position where we can control the crowds here at Wimbledon. We traditionally have a hugely respectful crowd here and I expect that we will continue to see that as we head into the rest of the tournament," said Bolton.
“I think I would echo what Elina and Vika said last night: having witnessed one of the most incredible matches on No 1 Court to an absolutely rapt audience, we should be focusing on the tennis and the match that we saw, not all of the other stuff that went on.”
Azarenka claimed that fans were quite drunk and said: "It's probably been a lot of Pimms throughout the day."
But this was something Bolton denied during the press conference today.
“That's not an issue that we recognise. What I would say is what we all saw in that match was an extremely high intensity well-matched contest that had the crowd absolutely on the edge of their seats. So the atmosphere in there was incredible. And that was driven by the quality of what they were seeing on the court.”
Victoria Azarenka was asked what she thinks of the crowd booing her: Vika: “What do you think about it?” Journalist: “I’m sorry?” Vika: “How do you think the crowd was in the end? What’s your opinion? Journalist: “I feel that was very unfair” Vika: “I think we agree on that”
