Yulia Putintseva responds after Maria Sakkari dispute: 'I shook her hand as most women do'

The fireworks between Yulia Putintseva and Maria Sakkari that were set off on Sunday at the Bad Homburg Open are still sizzling 24 hours later.

The Kazkah took to social media on Monday to give her side of the viral scene that came out of her loss to Sakkari at the WTA 500 on the opening day of play over the weekend, which saw the two players engage in a protracted argument after the Greek seemingly took exception to how Putintseva shook her hand at the net in defeat.

"When you shake hands with someone, look them in the eyes," Sakkari said amongst comments picked up by the court microphones at the Wimbledon tune-up.

As Putintseva responded with an exaggerated curtsy and later, a bow, the former world No. 3 could also be heard saying: "Just be like a human being."

Read more: 'Nobody likes you': Maria Sakkari and Yulia Putintseva get heated in Bad Homburg

And while many of Putintseva's verbal comments in the viral moment were uninteligible due to the positioning of the on-court microphones, she gave a clear response in the aftermath with two slides posted to her Instagram story.

First, she resposted a fan-made video edit of Sakkari giving less-than-enthused handshakes herself in prior losses to Martina Trevisan at the 2023 United Cup, and to Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon last summer.

"The plot thickens," read a caption over the video, alongside a clown emoji.

But Putintseva, who once famously referred to herself as a "gangster on the court, but an angel off the court," also suggested that the scene wasn't unique to either of them.

"By the way, not that I care," she began, "I shook her hand as most women do. Clearly not according to the 'hugging protocol' some men seem to follow."

While Sakkari has yet to answer back to Putintseva's latest round of comments, she will have the opportunity to let her racquet do the talking when she returns to the court on Wednesday against No. 8 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.