The Ukrainian condemned the silence of the Russians on the subject of the war
Former first racket of Ukraine Sergei Stakhovsky commented on the reaction of the international tennis community to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The ex-tennis player also condemned the position of Russian athletes who prefer not to comment on the aggressive actions of their state.
“It’s not difficult for me, but for them [Надалю и Джоковичу]. Again, you need to understand that this is our war, not theirs, and they do not see all this. They competed with the Russians and therefore believe that this is unfair. Ukraine is working towards the comprehensive isolation of Russia in order to show what the vector chosen by the Russians has led to,” Stakhovsky explained.
“The Russians did not react to the war in any way. None of their tennis players gave the world a clear message. No one condemned the Russian invasion, and I have claims against them as citizens of my country. The only message was from Rublev, who wrote something along the lines of ‘No to war’. For me, this is ineffective. Everyone is against the war, but you have invaded our land. If we stopped shooting, we wouldn’t be here. If Russia left our land, there would be peace.”
“Here you need to understand that they are looking at how ATP works. This is an international organization that condemned the actions of Russia. Despite this, she defends the rights of all athletes and is in fact apolitical. It is also worth understanding what losses Ukraine bears. And we will also need to take off from all this like a phoenix after the victory and make tremendous efforts to restore normal life.”
“Djokovic and Rafa understand everything, they wrote me words of support. Perhaps I should not have addressed Nadal in public, because such showdowns should remain inside and they should be explained everything in person, so that they would speak differently in the media. That is, this is a more correct approach. After my tweet to Nadal, I was asked why I didn’t reply to Djokovic as well, but I realized that this would be an emotional mistake.”
Recall that after the start of a full-scale invasion, the ATP and WTA – the organizers of the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours – banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in their tournaments under the flags of the aggressor countries.
Wimbledon this year did not allow the Russians and Belarusians to his tournament. In response to the decision of the organizers, the ATP, WTA and ITF stripped the third Slam of the season of ranking points.
Djokovic stated that he did not agree with the decision of the organizers of Wimbledon to remove all representatives of Russia and Belarus from the competition.
Stakhovsky, 36, announced his retirement from professional football in January, after winning eight ATP singles and doubles titles.
Source: Sportarena
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