Tsurenko: I will withdraw from matches if Russians compete

Ukrainian tennis player Lesya Tsurenko announced its readiness to withdraw from matches under the auspices of the WTA in the event that during the draws of tournaments its rivals will be representatives from Russia or Belarus.

Note that the WTA and ATP allow tennis players from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus to play under a neutral flag. The only tournament that banned athletes from these countries last year was Wimbledon.

“I’ll be honest, but the tennis world has pretended from the very beginning of the war that nothing was happening. It was very strange for me, I freaked out a lot because of this, I didn’t understand why people are so indifferent for the most part. Of course, these are not all the players and coaches, but for the majority nothing has changed, and this is our position, when we have to go out, talk and prove to the functionaries that this is a war and something needs to be done about it – no matter how much we tried, nothing couldn’t reach it.”

“To be honest, I feel very tense at tournaments, it’s unpleasant for me to be in the presence of representatives of the aggressor countries. Of course, it takes a lot of effort and you need to work hard on yourself in order to continue playing and still show results. The Olympics is generally a mystery to me that Russians and Belarusians will compete.”

“I will definitely [сниматься с матчей]. There are some players against whom, to be honest, I can’t even mentally pull myself to play, because I know their position, it’s unpleasant for me. I will stick to this recommendation, it was one of my ideas in the beginning, but I realized that it would not make sense, in tennis – that’s for sure. But if there is such a recommendation, – 100% [сниматься]”.

Recently, during the Extraordinary General Assembly of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, NOC members voted for a possible boycott of the 2024 Olympics, which will be held in Paris, if athletes from Russia and Belarus are admitted to the Games.

The IOC believes that a complete ban on the performance of Russian and Belarusian athletes is discrimination and is contrary to the Olympic Charter. The organizers of the 2024 Olympics in Paris said they would adhere to the decision of the International Olympic Committee to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete under a neutral flag.