Before Roland-Garros which begins Sunday, the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, 33 years old and 63rd in the world, called on her compatriots to "beat on all grounds" sporting their Russian and Belarusian opponents.
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The message before the France International that I send to all other athletes is always the same: we must go there and beat them on all courts, "says the player who has risen during her career to 23rd in the world and has won four WTA tournaments.
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It would make no sense for Ukrainian athletes to give up. What image would we convey?" she continues.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian N.3 also regrets the lack of support shown to her by her Russian and Belarusian rivals, even if some "were very good friends" before.
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Only one person came to speak to me directly on the first day of the war," she says. This person had tears in his eyes to see such a terrible thing happen," she recalls.
"We suffer even more"
Lesia Tsurenko
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Today, no player (Russian or Belarusian) speaks to me anymore. I don't have sympathy for any of them," she said. "All I can say is that if they suffer, we suffer even more."
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There are many ways to express disapproval (of Russia's invasion of Ukraine). You can change your nationality, or leave your country with your family if you are afraid," Tsurenko said.
She also denounces the attitude of the world tennis authorities with regard to Russian and Belarusian players, embodied according to her by the volte-face of Steve Simon, the boss of the WTA, the women's circuit.
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A year ago, Steve Simon told us that if a player showed her support for the war, she would be banned. A year later, it's as if the same Steve Simon was saying 'we can support the war.'"
And Tsurenko recalled that if she withdrew in March before facing the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells (United States), it is because she feared being instrumentalized.
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I just thought that if I played this match on Centre Court, people like Simon could then say in meetings between top sports leaders: 'Look, they're playing against each other and everything is going well.'"
Tennis as a lever
While the question of the reintegration of Russians and Belarusians, banned from major world sporting events except in a few sports including tennis, arises in the perspective of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Tsurenko attacked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which recommends their reinstatement under a neutral banner and individually.
"I have the impression that the IOC is using tennis as a lever (...) to be able to say that in this sport everything is going well, we play against each other and that's not a problem, and serve as an example for the Olympics."
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But that's a problem. It's very hard for Ukrainian women to play against Russians and Belarusians, for a whole bunch of reasons!" she exclaims.
«The WTA and IOC only look at sport from the perspective of Russian and Belarusian human rights and ignore violations of the rights of Ukrainians.»
Tsurenko has not returned to his country since the beginning of his invasion. His mother Larisa and sister Oksana stayed there.
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She gets up every night to go to a safe place," she says of her sister who lives in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital where Tsurenko dreams of returning soon: "This is my city and the place I love above all else."
