Lesya TSURENKO: “My body couldn’t take it, I had to withdraw from the match”

Ukrainian tennis player Lesya Tsurenko failed to play against Iga Sventek in the fourth round match of Roland Garros. The athlete withdrew from the game due to health problems.

“I have something similar to what Rybakina has, a virus or something like that. My body couldn’t handle it. I tried my best to deal with it but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Yesterday I couldn’t practice and today was hard to warm up but I thought I’d just start the game and maybe I was hoping I would get better, but unfortunately it got worse and I had to stop because that’s exactly how I didn’t want to play on the court.

“Before the last game I started to feel weak but physically fine. I was just starting to feel sore throat, but physically everything was fine. There was enough energy, so I played a good game. It all started later. The night was not so good and yesterday, I don’t know, “I studied for about ten minutes. I realized something was wrong with me. My heartbeat was very strong. You know, all these classic symptoms. Yes, a lot of problems accumulated in these two days.”

“As I said, I tried my best. Along with all these beneficial things, I drank liters of water with lemon. I have a lot of fruit, vitamin C, all these supplements but it did not help. I need two or three more days to recover. About what actually happened I have no idea. I think it’s very simple – I don’t know how Rybakina said that some kind of virus is circulating in Paris. Maybe something like that. I don’t know. We are all human. We all get sick sometimes.”

If I say sorry, that doesn’t really describe how I feel. Playing the game against Iga is a priority for me. I really want to play against such players and I’m very sorry that I couldn’t play,” said Tsurenko.