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Dayana Yastremska refused to shake hands with Eugenie Bouchard (Image: Euro Sport)
Dayana Yastremska refused to shake hands with Eugenie Bouchard in New York following their first match since the Canadian’s controversial doping tweet. Yastremska beat Bouchard in three sets, 6-1 4-6 6-4, during a second-round qualification clash at the US Open to deny the 2014 Wimbledon finalist a place in the main tournament for the fourth year running.
Four months ago, Bouchard beat Yastremska at the Madrid Open in her first main draw win at the event since triumphing over Maria Sharapova en route to the quarter-finals in 2017. After the victory, she took to X, previously known as Twitter, and aimed an unprovoked dig at Yastremska and Sharapova for their past doping violations. “There’s something about playing dopers in Madrid,” she wrote.
Yastremska tested positive for the banned substance Mesterolone in a WADA drugs test back in November 2020. She was later given a doping ban before being cleared six months later after it was ruled that she bore ‘no fault or negligence for the violation’. Meanwhile, Sharapova previously served a 15-month suspension for returning adverse findings for the banned substance Meldonium, which she had been taking for over a decade for health problems, having first been advised to take the drug by a doctor in 2006 when it was not on the WADA’s banned substances list.
Bouchard’s tweet received a mixed reception from fans and was subsequently deleted from social media shortly after she had posted it.
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The next day she put out an apology after coming under fire for the post. “I want to apologize for my tweet yesterday,” Bouchard wrote.
“It was a lapse in judgment, and unnecessary. Though I’ve always championed fair play, I didn’t have all my facts in order and certainly didn’t mean to cause harm. I’m going to continue to work on myself going forward, both on and off the court.”
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Dayana Yastremska plays Elena-Gabriela Ruse in another qualifier tomorrow (Image: GETTY)
The Ukrainian will now play Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania in the final qualifying round before the first US Open round gets underway on Monday. Ruse beat Hungary’s Dalma Galfi in three sets earlier today (4-6, 6-1, 7-5) and is ranked No 166 in the world.
Yastremska, who reached the semi-finals of the US Open as a mixed doubles partner in 2021 alongside Aussie star Max Purcell, has only managed to reach round three in the tournament as a singles competitor but will be hoping to beat that this year.
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