Victoria Azarenka has bristled at questions regarding fans brandishing pro-Russian flags at the Australian Open, which saw Novak Djokovic’s father filmed posing with the group.
In footage uploaded to a pro-Russian Australian YouTube account on Thursday, Srdjan Djokovic is seen standing alongside a man who is holding a Russian flag with President Vladimir Putin’s face and wearing the pro-war “Z” symbol associated with support of the Ukraine invasion.
Spectators are banned from having Russian or Belarusian flags at the Grand Slam after Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, demanded action when they were seen among the crowd last week.
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Tempers flare in Djokovic demolition | 00:52
Tennis Australia released a statement on Thursday afternoon addressing the incident.
“A small group of people displayed inappropriate flags and symbols and threatened security guards following a match on Wednesday night and were evicted. One patron is now assisting police with unrelated matters,” it read.
“Players and their teams have been briefed and reminded of the event policy regarding flags and symbols and to avoid any situation that has the potential to disrupt. We continue to work closely with event security and law enforcement agencies.”
Azarenka, a Belarusian, was asked for her opinion on the matter after her semi-final loss to Elena Rybakina on Thursday night.
TRANSCRIPT
Q. There’s been a lot of scrutiny about a lot of the Russian and Belarusian players here. I’m sure even if you weren’t looking at social, you would have seen there was an incident with Novak’s dad last night. Is it difficult for you when you go out there to put all those things out of your mind? Do you think there are other players who get impacted by it?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Other players get impacted by what exactly are you asking me?
Q. Distractions out of their hands, the constant sort of news and talk about issues.
VICTORIA AZARENKA: News are coming from who?
Q. Well, from everyone, social media.
VICTORIA AZARENKA: You‘re here talking about it right now, so obviously it’s a topic you want to continue to bring up and up and up again (smiling).
I don‘t know what you want me to say.
Q. Are you able to distance yourself completely? Does it concern you at all? Do you think about it? As a fellow player, do you think how difficult that might be for Novak?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I don‘t know what it has to do with Novak at all, to be fair, so…
I‘ve spoken to actually a security guard today who was walking me to practice every day. I know him for years. I just asked him what was the accident [sic]. He explained to me.
I don‘t know what you guys want us to do about it. Like talk about it? I don’t know what’s the goal here that it’s continuously brought up. These incidents that in my opinion have nothing to do with players, but somehow you keep dragging players into it.
So what‘s the goal here? I think you should ask yourself that question, not me.
Q. To clarify on that. Does it frustrate you, particularly last night, for example, there was a clear sort of pro-Russian demonstration happening within the grounds of the tournament, that these people are coming and using the Australian Open as a platform for these kind of demonstrations. Does that frustrate you?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Whatever the answer I‘m going to give it to you right now, it’s going to be turned whichever way you want to turn it to. So does it bother me? What bothers me is there’s real things that’s going on in the world. I don’t know. Are you a politician? Are you? Are you covering politics?
Q. No, I‘m a sports journalist.
VICTORIA AZARENKA: And I’m an athlete. You’re asking me about things that maybe somebody says are in my control, but I don’t believe that.
I don’t know what you want me to answer. If it’s a provocative question, then you can spin the story however you want.
