"Someone who works at McDonalds loses his job - and tennis players are the exceptions?": Svitolina, Kostyuk, Savchuk call for action
The Ukrainian tennis players around Elina Svitolina want to continue to put pressure on the WTA.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Apr 21, 2022, 10:07 pm
The waves surrounding Wimbledon's decision to exclude Russian and Belarusian players from the All England Championships are still high: some consider the measure "crazy", like Novak Djokovic , or "unfair", like the ATP and WTA . Others are calling on these two institutions to follow suit - above all the professionals from Ukraine.
Elina Svitolina found clear words: The WTA had already been spoken to during the Indian Wells tournament, "but there was no reaction". Svitolina continues: You have to know which players approve of Russia's war of aggression. "According to the statistics, 80 percent of Russians - maybe even more - support such actions by their state. If that's true: why are they allowed to be among us, among our colleagues? It's important for us that there are no murderers of our country among us . I want the maximum (of pressure) to be achieved. But I know the WTA, you always find excuses there. But we will fight to the end, we are ready for it," Svitolina said, according to the Ukrainian tribunal.
Marta Kostyuk: "Everyone has to make sacrifices here"
Colleague Marta Kostyuk also stated that she wanted answers to the published questions. After that it was up to the WTA, ATP and ITF to decide. Although she sees a problem: "The players who support the war will not make their position known." Because they knew that they would not be allowed to stay on the tour.
Kostyuk wants to give the players time. "If they are afraid of threats from their state, for example, they can then get their families out of Russia and then speak their mind. Everyone has to make sacrifices here, the world is suffering right now. (...) And if they don't do that, they will simply banned from all competitions until the war is over. That's how they will understand their influence, their importance."
Olga Savchuk: "Must be regulated in the same way"
Ex-professional player Olga Savchuk, ex-player and current team boss of the Ukrainian Billie Jean King Cup team, also gave a reason for a ban: "It is unacceptable that there are sanctions against 90 percent of the Russian population and against 10 percent don't, " she told the New York Times .
"If you think about it: Why does someone who works in a McDonald's in Russia lose their job because of the sanctions - and tennis players are the exception? It has to be regulated in the same way, it's a collective fault."