Tennis star Victoria Azarenka blasted reporters who kept asking her political questions about Russia following her match at the Australian Open, accusing them of “dragging players” into it.
During the Belarusian player’s recent press conference following her semifinals match, one reporter after another kept trying to get the professional tennis player to weigh in on pro-Russian demonstrations at the tournament by supporters, Fox News noted.
“I don’t know what you guys want us to do about it,” Azarenka said. “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?” she added. “I think you should ask yourself that question, not me.”
WATCH:
Tennis star Victoria Azarenka is sick of Left wing journos asking her about Russia:
"Whatever the answer I'm going to give to you right now, it's going to be turned whichever way you want to turn it."
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 31, 2023
Another reporter then tried to ask the same question about pro-Russian displays just in a different way and Azarenka blasted right back, saying that no answer she gave would make them stop.
“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,” the tennis star shared. “So does it bother me? What bothers me is there’s real things that’s going on in the world. And I don’t know. Are you a politician? Are you? Are you covering politics?”
The reporter replied that they cover sports and the tennis player hit back, “Yes, and I’m an athlete.”
“And you’re asking me about things that maybe somebody says are in my control, but I don’t believe that,” Azarenka shared. “So I don’t know what you want me to answer. And if it’s a provocative question, then, you know, you can spin the story however you want.”
She was also asked her thoughts on the “scrutiny surrounding Russian and Belarusian players” and if was “difficult” for her to “put all those things out” of her mind while she played, the outlet noted.
“Other players get impacted by what exactly are you asking me?” the tennis star shared, and the reporter tried again, but got called out.
“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,” Victoria replied. “So I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Images recently surfaced showing tennis great Novak Djokovic‘s father, Srdjan Djokovic, reportedly posing with fans holding Russian flags, the Independent noted. Djokovic’s father has insisted he accidentally got caught up in the pro-Russian demonstration.