Tennis star who was told ‘nobody likes you’ in x-rated row hits back

Yulia Putintseva has broken her silence following her x-rated handshake row with Maria Sakkari on Sunday.

The two stars clashed after their third round match at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany, which Sakkari won 7-5, 7-6.

Having shaken hands at the net, the pair then fired insults at each other during an argument, including Sakkari telling her Kazakhstani opponent that ‘nobody likes you’.  

The argument left fans debating the incident over who was in the right, but on Monday, Putintseva hit back and aimed a dig at Sakkari.

In a post on her Instagram story, the 30-year-old shared a mirror selfie alongside a message of defiance.

‘By the way – not that I care – I shook her hand as most women do,’ Putintseva said.

‘Clearly not according to the ‘hugging protocol’ some men seem to follow.’

That message also came after she had fired a dig at Sakkari as she shared a video from Instagram account ‘The Tennis Pulse’.

The post was a clip of Sakkari clashing with Putintseva at the net where the Greek star could be heard saying: ‘When you shake hands look at the other person in the eye.’

The video then switched to a screengrab of Sakkari shaking hands at the net with Emma Raducanu and Martina Trevisan after separate defeats.

However, in both instances, Sakkari’s head was turned away from her opponent and she wasn’t ‘looking at the other person in the eye’.

Alongside the video, Putintseva added: ‘And the plot thickens…’, accompanied by a clown emoji.  

Meanwhile, following their game on Sunday, despite clearly simmering beneath their calm exteriors, both Sakkari and Putintseva observed the usual show of respect by clasping hands over the net. 

But, spectators were then shocked after a row began, seemingly over the brief and loose handshake.

Wild card Sakkari appeared to be especially unhappy and was heard telling her opponent to act ‘like a human being’, to which Putintseva insisted she had. 

But the hot-headed Kazakhstani then upped the stakes as she appeared to tell Sakkari to ‘go f***’ herself and to leave her alone, gesturing for her to move away.

Much of the spat wasn’t audible because of the music being pumped out around the court, but a riposte from Putintseva led Sakkari to follow her to her bench.

Sakkari eventually walked away but returned again just seconds later, appearing to say, ‘F****** hell, I’m what?’ She then clearly told Putintseva: ‘Nobody likes you!’ 

The Greek instructed Putintseva to look into her opponent’s eyes when shaking their hand after a match before the umpire stepped in, saying: ‘Ladies, please.’

Putintseva delivered a sarcastic sweeping bow in Sakkari’s direction, saying ‘thank you very much’, and the argument continued even as she made her way off the court.

Last year, Putintseva, 30, was involved in another ugly moment during her defeat to Jasmine Paolini at the US Open, leading to her being widely criticised by pundits.

Footage showed two balls being thrown towards Putintseva ahead of her next serve, but she ignored them and stared back at the ball girl without moving.

That left the youngster in an awkward position, before Putintseva caught the third ball and resumed the match when she was down 4-2 in the second set. 

Putintseva was loudly booed and twice apologised for her ‘terrible behaviour’, insisting she was ‘p***ed’ at herself rather than the ball girl.

‘It’s kind of scary the way the world can judge someone from just a three second video, that someone posts from one side, without seeing the rest on what was really happening,’ she wrote on social media.

‘I was just playing tennis and lost a tough game, which was very close (in my opinion) to turn that match around. 

‘After the game (as you can see on a pic) I got very much disappointed and was almost crying, that I didn’t do better. 

‘At this time the girl was giving me the ball, which I didn’t even notice or so, because I was deep in my thoughts… I was not trying to humiliate her (or anyone) by not taking this ball that she was giving to me.

‘I didn’t do anything disrespectful to anyone at this particular moment. I do apologise, if this girl thinks that it was something towards her. (And btw her name is Kate, very nice girl, which understood that it was nothing towards her).

‘I can’t say that I am perfect all my career. I am getting angry on court, p***ed, saying stupid stuff and curse like no tomorrow sometimes. Guilty for that. But I did never put myself “on top” of someone. That’s just not me at all.’