INDIAN WELLS, USA – Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, who advanced to the second round of the Indian Wells on Thursday, complained of a lack of support and empathy from Russian players, citing the war in her country.
“It is very disappointing that no Russian player came to me to tell me that he is sorry to see what their country is causing in mine. “There are more Ukrainian citizens who died than soldiers, and among them children … it is terrible,” the 19-year-old player lamented.
“A player sent me a message. Another came to talk to me, but no one supported me or asked me how I was doing. “It’s shocking.”
“It’s not about politics, it’s about people. “It hurts me, it hurts me when I get here on the site, when I see these players, when I hear them say that their main problem is that they can not transfer their money or anything like that, that is unacceptable,” he said. was added.
“I do not know why the Russians are behaving this way. What is happening is not a secret, we know what is happening, who is attacking the other, who is bombing the other. “It’s easy to understand and you can not remain neutral,” Kostyuk said.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the positions of Russian players have been rare: the No. 1 in the world Daniil Medvedev has called for peace, while Andrey Rublev or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a Roland-Garros 2021 finalist, have stated their opposition to war.
“Horrible to live with him”
“But saying ‘no’ to war means many things. “No to war” can mean, for example, to stop fighting. But this is not an option for us. So their press releases do not make sense to me. What do they want? That Ukraine loses, that Russia gains? I do not know anything about that … “, he breathed.
“Ukraine will never give up, but we know that Putin will not stop either, he is crazy. This is how we fight “, continued the 54th player in the world.
Kostyuk also expressed his “disagreement” with the WTA women’s and ATP men’s decision to allow Russians to play in tournaments without mentioning their country or their flag representation.
“I will summarize it: look at other sports, what they have done. “I will stop there,” she said, referring to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has called for a ban on Russians from international sporting events, which has been implemented by several bodies, led by FIFA.
Kostyuk went on to talk about the difficulty of practicing his sport given the current situation.
“It was very difficult to get on the pitch. When I woke up this morning, I did not think I would play. My family is there. You go to bed at night and you do not know if the next day … It is not an easy time, the first days were horrible to live, but the nervous system manages to adapt, it gets used to the situation “Explained the one who will be against Belgium Elise Mertens in the next round.
If it is programmed on the distribution board, it will see the Ukrainian flag waving next to the American one on the roof. The yellow and blue colors of which were worn on Thursday by Daria Savile (genus Gavrilova), Australian, Russian origin.
