Tsurenko: Russian athletes do not want to talk about the war, because it will become clear who exactly supports it

Ukrainian tennis player Lesya Tsurenko believes that Russian athletes are afraid to speak openly about the war against Ukraine, because the whole world will see their real attitude towards aggression against another country.

“Only one person spoke to me directly on the first day of the war. He said with tears in his eyes that everything that was happening was very terrible. Other players did not communicate with me. I don’t have much sympathy for any of them. I can only say that if they suffer, then we suffer much more. There are many ways that you can resort to help in such cases. You can change citizenship or move your family abroad if you are afraid. Frankly, I don’t think they want to speak out about the war, because in that case the names of those who support it will become known.

“I was so shocked that a year ago, Steve Simon told us that if any player supported the war, he would be banned. A year has passed and his position has changed in the direction that “supporting the war is normal.” It shocked me so much, it just didn’t fit in my head.”

“I just imagined that if I played center court, then people like Steve Simon would say to sports bosses in a meeting, they say, “they played each other and everything is fine.” He would use my name in a way that I don’t want to be used.”

“I have a feeling right now that the IOC is using tennis as a kind of bridge… to say that everything is great in tennis, that they play against each other and there are no problems. And this will be used in the future when deciding on the Olympics. But there is a problem. There are many reasons why it is very difficult for Ukrainians to play against Russians and Belarusians. The WTA and the IOC look at sports only from the point of view of the rights of Russians and Belarusians and ignore violations of the rights of Ukrainians.”

“This is my message to the French Open – we need to go out and win on all platforms. I say the same about other sports. I don’t see the point if Ukrainian athletes give up. What signal are we sending then? In tennis, we’ve tried so many things to get them banned, but the tennis organizations don’t want to listen to us.”

Recall that at the Indian Wells tournament, a few minutes before the start of the meeting against the Belarusian tennis player Arina Sobolenko, Tsurenko refused to play “for personal reasons.” Lesya said that the head of the WTA, Steve Simon, said that if players from Russia and Belarus support the war, then this is only their own opinion. The functionary also expressed confidence that the Russians would be allowed to the Olympics following the example of tennis tournaments, despite the war they unleashed.