Stakhovsky: The Tennis Federation of Ukraine has no desire to change something

Former first racket of Ukraine Sergei Stakhovsky commented on the state of affairs in Ukrainian tennis.

In particular, 36-year-old Stakhovsky gave his assessment of Ukraine’s prospects in men’s tennis, where the country is not represented even within the top 200 of the ATP world ranking.

“We have supergirls who show good results for a long period of time: Tsurenko, Svitolina, Kostyuk, Yastremskaya, Beindl, Kalinina, Kichenok sisters, Zavatskaya — we have girls and the depth of their composition. Here you need to ask not me, but the Federation [тенниса Украины]. Before the war, until 2014, we had three men and two girls in the top 50. As for me, for a country that does not invest in tennis, of course, this is a success, but no one has developed it. There are already direct questions to the Federation, how it happened that Dolgopolov, Stakhovsky, Marchenko, Bubka and Molchanov played with the same squad in the Ukrainian national team for 18 years, ”Sergey explained.

“This is a big problem, because there are no juniors, and the system should be directly responsible for the youth, and, unfortunately, the system has not been done in Ukraine. For me, this is a direct question to the FTU.”

“Elina Svitolina, with her fund, apparently took 37 tennis players abroad and helps them, but this is all money. In the future, the question will be whether Ukrainian tennis will have a future at all.”

“This, in fact, is not only about tennis. I’m sure there are a lot of adequate athletes who finish their careers, but the question is different. This requires the desire of the Federation. And we have no desire in the Federation and in sports in general to change something. They have no desire to take former athletes because they know too much and understand too much. Athletes will interfere with what they do – their own little kingdom. And they rule in this kingdom: I want it this way, but I like this, but I don’t like this; I will give money to this one, but I will not give this one. This is wrong, because the athlete must give results. If he gives it, then it doesn’t matter what he says about the Federation. In our country, the emphasis is on who says what.”

In January, Stakhovsky announced his retirement from professional career, during which he won eight ATP titles in singles and doubles.

After the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, the Ukrainian joined the territorial defense of Kyiv and has since been transferred to the reserve. Last week, Stakhovsky visited the frontline zone in the Donetsk region and handed over aid to the Ukrainian military.