Tennis
She renounced her homeland for Poland. Tennis player from Russia begged for a European passport
Valeria Olyanovskaya / Photo: © Mariusz Palczynski / Mpaimages.C / Keystone Press Agency / Global Look Press
Valeria openly admits her love for the new country.
Despite the aspirations of anti-Russian sports officials, there is no mass outflow of champions from Russia. Cases of change of citizenship are still isolated, and sometimes do not cause even the slightest pity.
Tennis player Valeria Olyanovskaya openly renounced Russia for the sake of life in another country. After receiving Polish citizenship, the athlete is ready to scrape every day before the authorities of the new country.
“I wanted to become Polish”
Olyanovskaya’s presence at a tournament in Poland caused a lot of noise in August. Local Russophobes were outraged by Valeria’s presence in the tournament bracket in memory of Lech and Maria Kaczynski. Even the Minister of Sports Kamil Bortnichuk, who does not go into his pocket for anti-Russian statements, had to come to the defense of the tennis player.
Such patronage of a high-ranking official is easily explained. Valeria was born in Moscow, but since the age of 16 she has been living in Poland with short breaks. She publicly declared her love for this country, and also spoke negatively about Russia.
Valeria left for Poland for a breakthrough in her career. The former coach of the famous Russian tennis player Nadezhda Petrova, Tomas Iwanski, who then lived in Lodz, agreed to help Olyanovskaya achieve results and support her financially. In six years, she managed to “break through” only to 564th place in the WTA rankings, but the lack of results did not affect Valeria’s love for Poland.
— I wanted to become Polish when I turned 18. It was here, and not in Russia, that I had hopes and prospects. Then I realized that this was an opportunity that I had no right to miss. People even ask my family, who remained in Moscow, why I did this. But they don’t attack my relatives, they’re just interested,” Sport.Fakt quotes Olyanovskaya as saying.
“I will be grateful every day”
Obtaining the desired document took several years. Progress occurred after Valeria publicly condemned Russia’s policies and also sent an email to the WTA office with a request to remove the flag of our country from her profile.
The tennis player received her passport a few weeks ago and did not miss the first opportunity to thank the authorities of her new homeland. At a Polish club tournament, the athlete spoke about life in her new status.
— In Poland I feel great, even fantastic. If we compare what was and what is now, this is heaven and earth. I am very grateful to Poland for this opportunity and to everyone who helped me along the way. Every day I will be grateful that I have the opportunity to come to Kozerki and play,” Interia quoted Olyanovskaya as saying.
The tennis player also said that she is looking forward to joining the national team. True, with Valeria’s latest results it will be difficult to qualify for an invitation to the Polish team. Even at this local tournament, where the opposition, to put it mildly, is not the strongest, she lost in all three matches that were entrusted to her.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
Four representatives from Ukraine were included in the qualification list Australian Open 2026.
Yulia Starodubtseva (WTA 113), Angelina Kalinina (WTA 127), Daria Snigur (WTA 153) and Vitaly Sachko (ATP 153) will compete for the Australian Open main draws.
The best moments of tennis matches LIVE on Telegram channel Tennis on Sport.ua
Major qualifiers in Melbourne will be held from January 12-17.
The place at the heart of the Australian Open 2026 is guaranteed by four Ukrainian tennis players: Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk, Dayana Yastremskaya and Alexandra Oleynikova.
Home page for Australian Open 2026 qualifiers (women)
Home page for Australian Open 2026 qualifiers (men)
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
Ukraine’s first racket Elina Svitolina (WTA 14) became the “Opening Week” participant of the Australian Open 2026.
On January 14, 2026, the Ukrainian will play an exhibition match against Amanda Anisimova (USA, WTA 4) at the tournament’s main stadium, Rod Laver Arena.
The meeting will be held in the format of two standard sets as the deciding game and a super tiebreak up to 10 points.
There will also be four more exhibition matches: Elena Rybakina – Zheng Qingwen, Alexander Zverev – Lorenzo Musetti, Carlos Alcaraz – Alex de Minaur, Jannik Sinner – Felix Auger-Aliassime.
After the match between Svitolina and Anisimova, Rod Laver Arena will host the AO 1 Point Slam tournament, where tennis stars Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Daniil Medvedev, Zheng Qingwen, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jasmine Paolini will compete against amateurs.
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
Tennis
22-28.12 Schedule and results of matches between Ukrainians and Ukrainians at ITF tournaments
Sport.ua presents the schedule and results of matches of Ukrainian tennis players at the ITF World Tour tournaments from December 15 to 21
men
M15 Antalya (Türkiye – location), Antalya Series
Singles, elimination, first round
- Maxim Khlyvnyuk (Ukraine) – Ibrahim Yego (Kenya) – absent
- Filip Pavic (Kosovo) – Andrey Bilata (Ukraine) – without
Singles, qualifiers, second round
- Maxim Khlyvnyuk (Ukraine) – Stefanos Schinas (Greece, 15) – 23.12, at 10:00 at the latest
- Alexandru Balan (Canada, 6) – Andrey Bilata (Ukraine) – 23.12, 12:30 at the latest
Singles, first round
- TVA – Nikita Bilozertsev (Ukraine, 6) –TVA
- TVA – Ilya Biloborodko (Ukraine) –TVA
- TVA – Alexander Ovcharenko (Ukraine, 2) –TVA
Doubles, first round
- Dillon Beckles (USA) and Alexander Wagner (Austria) – Nikita Bilozertsev (Ukraine) and Alp Horoz (Türkiye) – TVA
- William Mirarchi (Italy) and Daniil Stepanov – Mihai Marinescu (Romania) and Alexander Ovcharenko (Ukraine, 4) –TVA
M15 Monastir (Tunisia – difficult), FTT by Magic Hotel Tours
Singles, elimination, first round
- Kazuki Nishiwaki (Japan, 6) – Arseniy Mironov (Ukraine) – 6:0, 6:0
Women
W15 Antalya (Türkiye – ground), Antalya Series
Singles, elimination, first round
- Anastasia Necule (Romania) – Yaroslava Sribnaya (Ukraine) –TVA
- Arina Yakusheva (Ukraine) – Naz Kaynak (Türkiye) – TVA
- Jamie Collinson (Australia) – Helen Grab (Ukraine) –TVA
- Serafima Vasilyeva (Ukraine) – Öykü Şahbaz (Ukraine) – none
Singles, qualifiers, second round
- Eva Galievskaya (Ukraine, 6) – Honoka Uchiyama (Japan) or Alisa Aksiyanova – TVA
- Serafima Vasilyeva (Ukraine) – Sabina Shaidullina or Ema Garayda (Czech Republic, 14) – TVA
Doubles, first round
- Asylzhan Arystanbekova (Kazakhstan) and Ingkar Dyusebay (Kazakhstan) – Sara Balan (Romania) and Eva Galievskaya (Ukraine) –TVA
- Nanari Katsumi (Romania) and Honoka Uchiyama (Japan) – Helen Grab (Ukraine) and Arina Yakusheva (Ukraine) –TVA
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
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