Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova says tennis must stop ‘accepting’ Russians who support war
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Ukraine's Oleksandra Oliynykova has called on the WTA to take action against players who support Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
PHOTO: AFP
PARIS – Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova on May 30 called on the WTA to take action against players who support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The Russian players... They have these horrible beliefs. This is something that we need to stop accepting in professional sports,” she said after her 7-5, 6-1 loss to Russian Diana Shnaider in the third round of the French Open.
“If they don’t want to hear and they continue to spread this propaganda, then there should be some mechanism in our tour to stop this.
“They (the Russians) want to be in public. They want to use this to support their dictators. That’s what they want to do and what we need to not accept.”
The 25-year-old then began her post-match press conference by reading a prepared statement.
“I know that some people disagree with my actions. I know that some people would prefer that I stay silent. But what I do is not about politics, it’s about humanity,” she said.
“Our organisation (WTA) was not built by pioneers like Billie Jean King so that money and luxury could become the only values in women’s tennis. They wanted something bigger than that. They wanted us to have a voice, to inspire others to make the world better.”
Ahead of their match, Oliynykova had accused 25th-seed Shnaider of “taking money” from a “company financing war crimes”.
She had brandished her phone to show photos of Shnaider playing in an event sponsored by Russian state energy company Gazprom and also some of the Russian’s social media “likes”.
Shnaider said she had “no idea” what the 65th-ranked Ukrainian might have said about her in the build-up to the match.
“Yesterday I was just practising and getting ready,” she told reporters. “So, yeah, I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know anything about what she said. About social media, I have no idea what she found. I have no idea, so I don’t have any comments on that.”
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Oliynykova has regularly breached the subject on the WTA Tour.
“The thing is that someone needs to react,” she said. “I want to stop the tour being so hypocritical pretending they cannot do anything because... they have the mechanism. You can be sanctioned if you participate in a tournament organised by a betting company... if they have this mechanism, why they will not use this for a tournament organised by a war crimes sponsor?” AFP
