Russians and Ukrainians are spearheading the charge of professional tennis speaking out against the war in Ukraine, where Russian forces are invading.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, launched the attack last week. Since then, players have voiced their displeasure for the war via social media, press conferences, and even on cameras.
ATP world No. 6 Andrey Rublev, the second-ranked Russian behind Daniil Medvedev, made the biggest headlines by writing “No War Please” following his victory in the Dubai semifinals against Hubert Hurkacz.
“In these moments you realize that my match is not important,” Rublev added. “It’s not about my match, how it affects me. What’s happening is much more terrible. You realize how important it is to have peace in the world and to respect each other no matter what, to be united. We should take care of our earth and of each other. This is the most important thing.
“Of course I get some bad comments on the internet because I am Russian. I get some aggressive comments. I cannot react on them because if I react on them, I’m going to show the same…. Even if they throw rocks to me, I need to show I’m for the peace. I’m not here to be aggressive or something…. I think this is the right way to do it, at least for me.”
Medvedev expressed similar sentiments in Acapulco, where he lost in the semis to Rafael Nadal but clinched the world No. 1 ranking thanks to Novak Djokovic’s Dubai quarterfinal loss to Jiri Vesely.
“By being a tennis player, I want to promote peace all over the world,” the 26-year-old said. “We play in so many different countries. I’ve been in so many different countries as a junior and as a pro. It’s just not easy to hear all this news. I’m all for peace.”
Medvedev expanded further on Twitter.
On the WTA side, Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova expressed her opposition to the war on Monday. Pavlyuchenkova was runner-up at the French Open last spring and then won mixed doubles gold at the Olympics with Rublev.
“I’ve been playing tennis since I was a kid,” Pavlyuchenkova posted on social media. “I have represented Russia all my life. This is my home and my country. But now I am in complete fear, as are my friends and family. But I am not afraid to clearly state my position. I am against war and violence.”
Ukrainian players such as Marty Kostyuk and Lesia Tsurenko came out with a joint statement demanding action from the WTA and ITF.
“Our country, Ukraine is under brutal attack by superior nuclear power. The bombs and rockets are hitting our houses, killing our people, destroying our life…. We demand that WTA immediately [condemn] Russian government, pull all tournaments out of Russia, approach ITF to do the same.”
The statement added that “we fully support our colleagues from Russia,” but Elina Svitolina is refusing to play any match against a Russian opponent unless the governing bodies of tennis only allow Russian players to compete independently without any display of affiliation to their country.
Svitolina said via Twitter that she will not play her first-round match in Monterrey against Russia’s Anastasia Potapova, which is scheduled for Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky–who retired from tennis last month–has enlisted with his country’s military reserves.
thoughts?
I wonder if Putin will respond to these tennis players’ comments.
There are so many tennis players who are either Russian, Ukranian or Belarussian.
Its great if they all have a united front on this
Unfortunately these messages from Russian sportspersons most likely don’t reach their compatriots which are almost exclusively fed with Russian government propaganda.
Does anyone think that Russians as a people have any quarrel with Ukrainians? They are being lied that their army is somehow liberating Ukraine.
Hopefully sooner rather than later Russians will start questioning:
– why their cards are no longer working
– why the store shelves are getting empty
– why they can’t travel anywhere (or get any visits)
– why their sportspersons or sport teams don’t win (or even play) anything anymore
– why their boys are not coming home, or they are coming in coffins 😐
However, let’s remember what Medvedev said following his recent AO loss:
“From now on I’m playing for myself, for my family, to provide (for) my family, for people that trust in me, of course for all the Russians because I feel a lot of support there… if there is a tournament on hard courts in Moscow, before Roland Garros or Wimbledon, I’m going to go there even if I miss Wimbledon or Roland Garros or whatever. The kid stopped dreaming. The kid is going to play for himself. That’s it. That’s my story.”
So right now he is playing for Putin as well, isn’t he? 🙂
It’s complicated to be a Russian sportsperson these days. It’s hard for them to really go against their own country where the majority of their fanbase resides. Also it’s hard to go against the regime without risking to be labelled as traitors and, more importantly, risking the safety of their loved ones.
However, let’s remember what Medvedev said following his recent AO loss:
“From now on I’m playing for myself, for my family, to provide (for) my family, for people that trust in me, of course for all the Russians because I feel a lot of support there… if there is a tournament on hard courts in Moscow, before Roland Garros or Wimbledon, I’m going to go there even if I miss Wimbledon or Roland Garros or whatever. The kid stopped dreaming. The kid is going to play for himself. That’s it. That’s my story.”
So right now he is playing for Putin as well, isn’t he? 🙂
Like I said on another topic, it’s complicated to be a Russian sportsperson these days. It’s hard for them to really go against their own country where the majority of their fanbase resides. Also it’s hard to go against the regime
without risking to be labelled as traitors and, more importantly, risking the safety of their loved ones.
Well these events are mirroring the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
The fact that they chose unilaterally to disregard UN and bomb a sovereign country, using the excuse of the ongoing “genocide”, mirrors these events eerily.
None of the attacks are good, neither 1999 nor 2022, and only the innocent people are getting hurt, while both in 1999 and 2022 the real villains are politicians on both sides.
You are talking loathsome garbage.
Serbia was engaged in ethnic cleansing.
If NATO hadn’t intervened vastly more people would have been murdered.
NATO bombed to stop genocide. Russia is bombing to commit genocide.
Why do you put quotes around the word genocide?! Because you are a genocide denier yourself. Get lost creep!
How would you know what is/was happening on the ground? Were you actually there to see for yourself? Or you got your opinion by listening to propaganda from NATO/Russia?
They are the two sides of the same coin.
Only you seem too biased to recognize this.
And no, I am not going to go that low to start calling you names, like you did. Really mature from your side.
I get my information from Bosnian political scientists, journalists and writers. They are very clear on this matter as well they might be given they are facing the prospect of another genocide. In Serbia they are holding rallies to support the Russians who Vukic supports. Dodik in Bosnia Herzegovina is leading a Serb separatist movement to start another genocide with Russian support.
You don’t know what you are talking about.
Every single Bosnian figure who experienced the genocide and who are warning now it is about to begin again in Bosnia and Kosovo would be repelled and disgusted by what you write. I know that for a fact. I am only repeating what they are saying right now and they all lived through the horrors of ethnic cleansing.I
PS what they would call you would be unrepeatable.
Just as I thougt. You have second hand information, while I’ve been there, on the ground, and seen what is/was happening.
And don’t get me wrong, ugly things were happening in both Ukraine and Kosovo (and Bosnia for that matter, which is not the case here, but you conveniently brought it up, though only citing information coming from a single side source), but if there was genocide on Kosovo, so was in Ukraine, make no mistake.
As much as he’d like to, Putin can’t shut out the internet/social media/mass communication completely. The truth will out.
But will people believe it? There are many reports of people being bombed in Ukraine who have Russian relatives, including parents, in the Donbas area and Crimea who simply won’t believe them. When they tell them they are being bombed and shot at they say it’s all lies. !!
This is what decades of propaganda does to people. Many of the people who know and see the truth have fled Russia.
People in Russia are demonstrating against the war, at great personal risk. I am full of admiration at their bravery. If 3 thousand tell 3 thousand, tell 3 thousand and so on , the truth will out eventually.
I think the war and the sanctions will bankrupt Russia. Putin will have problems lying about that.
I certainly hope so. Something good should come out of social media and the internet. If the horrific truth of what Putin is doing becomes revealed to his people, then maybe his people will have had enough of this monster.
Stakhovsky has gone to Kiev to fight the Russians.
💙💙💚💚💛💛💜💜💜💜
What a people the Ukranians are.
I agree that Ukrainians need to be helped now and I’m totally against what Russia is doing to them.
But make no mistake, they are not some kind of angels. They are nationalists (which is why they are such fierce fighters) and over the past years there have been reports that they don’t treat their minorities too kindly.
What goes around…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia
That was during the second world war! What do you mean “what goes around?” Are you suggesting that their getting massacred is some kind of karma? That’s very very distasteful. Most people in the Ukraine weren’t alive then and if they were they were children.
Every country in Europe during the war did terrible things. All countries do.
Especially the Brits.
Yes the British Empire has done terrible things. I don’t disagree with that in the slightest.
It’s also true that London and its offshore entities is at the centre of laundering money for dictators, oligarchs and the mob. Londongrad, as it’s unaffectionately known, has huge amounts of blood on its hands.
The road from Moscow to Kiev runs through London.
I am immensely ashamed of that.
It’s not just the banks, it’s the lawyers, the estate agents, the pr firms and so on who have made a fortune out of this. In fact this is so deeply entrenched sanctions can’t be enacted or enforced. This country is literally drowning in corruption.
In our very recent past, GB and USA have done terrible things. We cant take the moral high ground here.
Of course that doesn’t in any way justify what Putin is doiing.
Maybe you for bit about the blitzkrieg in London. Where my great aunt lost her family. The hell they endured night after night, was horrendous.
There is nothing good about war. Everyone suffers.
Maybe you FORGOT!
I so agree. I marched, demonstrated, wrote endless letters against the Iraq war, against Falklands, you name it!
In the end you have to have a negotiated peace treaty, sooner rather than later too.
I too was extremely opposed to war in Iraq and demonstrated against it. The Falklands was before my time.
I have no idea why anyone would think I was pro war. I am absolutely horrified by what is going on now.
All we are saying….is give peace a chance (John Lennon, 1971).
Yastremska expressed it very well at the end of her match in Lyon
I hope Svitolina does play
she did
I dislike this tit for tat as to who did worse things in war. Go back and watch documentary film of WWII. My father got to see the final solution up close and personal when was with the American soldiers who liberated the concentration camps. His job was to document the atrocities for war crimes trials and to interrrogate the Nazi prisoners of war.
You want to talk about atrocities? My father never got over what he saw. Ukraine is where my maternal grandmother was born. In Kiev. They got out before the Bolsheviks took over. One brother stayed behind. He was a pianist and had a wife and children. She tried to find him during and after WWII. It was something that was never talked about with the grandchildren. It was only about 8 years ago that I found out what happened to him. My mother told me that he and his family were among the over 30,000 Jews massacred at Babi Yar in Ukraine.
I feel for the elderly Ukrainians who are living through another horrific war. You would think WWII was enough.