Elina Svitolina refuses handshake with Mirra Andreeva after group photo seemingly snubbed due to Russian and Belarusian presence

Mirra Andreeva widely swatted aside Elina Svitolina during the night at the WTA Finals as the World No. 3 made an excellent start to life in Indian Wells. She won through 6-4, 6-0.

The match between the two players is always a bit of a hot topic due to the war between their respective countries, with Svitolina, as usual, deciding not to shake hands with Andreeva, which in itself always carries a sense of outcry on social media when it happens, despite the fact that it has been going on for a long time with no sense that it will stop anytime soon.

It has also been a theme of this week. Ahead of the tournament, group photographs in their best gowns and outfits are usually a bit of an event. People on social media await the appearance of the group photo, discuss the outfits and generally look ahead to the event, especially in a time when for most of the players, they are only really seen in tennis outfits for the vast majority of the year.

But that was done away with this year. Outfits are kind of aside; the tradition was abandoned with no real reason given, with pictures in smaller groups taken instead.

The WTA did not provide any further explanation for this, but the reason is semi-easy to work out in that Svitolina this year qualified for the tournament, and she has to play alongside Mirra Andreeva and Aryna Sabalenka from Russia and Belarus, respectively. Marta Kostyuk is also now playing in the event and has been as outspoken as Svitolina on the war and other players' roles in that.

Svitolina believes that Russian and Belarusian athletes that have not spoken out against the war bear responsibility. She has refused to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian players for several years and continued that stance during the early hours at Indian Wells.

Albeit some have been left puzzled in the past as Svitolina refuses to shake hands with some players who have left Russia behind, e.g., Varvara Gracheva and Anastasia Potapova. But Elena Rybakina was in photos with her and also shook hands with her.

As ever, though, for anyone waiting for a handshake that wasn't set to come. But for Andreeva, she finally gets a top 10 win again. "Honestly, I feel like I haven't had a lot of Top 10 wins this season. To have another one finally, it feels super nice," Andreeva told reporters after the match. "I guess it was good that I didn't think about it, because I feel like the less I think, the better it is. But I'm just super happy I was able to get a win against such an experienced player."

But despite such an excellent win, she decided to hit the practice court again afterwards, seemingly not happy with her efforts. "It actually was my initiative," Andreeva said. "I think it's the very first time that I asked Conchita (Martinez) to go to the practice courts. I think something's wrong, like I'm ageing. I don't know; something is going on. So she was very surprised. She was like, 'Are you kidding?'

"She didn't believe me, because usually that doesn't happen often. But I just wanted to clean my shots. I wanted to serve a little. I just wanted to feel a bit more free on the court, and that was the purpose behind it."