Andrey Medvedev: Such letters harm national tennis interests

Captain of the Ukrainian national team in the Davis Cup Andrey Medvedev commented on the appeal to ITFin which they demanded to remove the vice president of the FTU Evgenia Zukina from positions in tennis bodies.

He called the information in the letter “not true”.

“As the captain of the Davis Cup men’s national team, I was unpleasantly surprised by a letter signed by well-known tennis players in which they make accusations against FTU Executive Director Yevgeny Zukin. I can testify that everything that concerns the order of appointment of the composition of the teams is not true.

“I personally approve the final squad for each match, since I am responsible for the final result. I want to note that this is not only about the current result, we are building a team for the future, so we are actively inviting young players to the national team. We have to look to the future.”

“The process of choosing tennis players goes like this: together with the coach of the national team, Mikhail Filima, I make a list of those who I would like to see in the team. I get acquainted with the wishes of the Federation, if any, then I approve the final composition. Everything, there has never been another procedure. Yevgeny Zukin has nothing to do with the formation of the national team, his responsibility is to resolve financial issues, including those related to remuneration for the match.”

“I don’t understand who and why initiated the writing of such a letter in principle. If any questions arise, and these are internal issues, it is necessary to get together and agree, to involve the President of the FTU Sergey Lagur in this process, who is always ready to listen to someone else’s point of view. Everything can be solved. And such letters, even during a full-scale war with Russia, only harm the national tennis interests.

Ukrainian tennis players demand that Zukin be fired from his positions in the Ukrainian Tennis Federation, the ITF Davis Cup committee, the ITF referee position and the deprivation of any powers in the International Tennis Federation.

The letter against Zukin was signed by Lyudmila Kichenok, Nadezhda Kichenok, Marta Kostyuk, Ilya Marchenko, Sergei Stakhovsky, Elina Svitolina and Lesya Tsurenko.

Yesterday Katarina Zawatskaya, who was among the signatories, withdrew her signature. The 22-year-old athlete did not name the reason for this decision.

The letter was also condemned by Dayana Yastremskaya. She stressed that Zukin is a “decent, honest professional.”

Recall that Zukin, summing up the match between the Ukrainian team and the United States (2:3) in the Billie Jean King Cup, spoke negatively about some Ukrainian tennis players, who, in his opinion, refused to participate in the duel with the Americans.

The functionary said that he “hopes that Ukrainian tennis players will change their attitude towards playing for the national team and will be patriots not only on Instagram.”