After his victory last night in the quarterfinals against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, part of whose family still lives in Moscow, was as often invited to answer a question at a press conference on the situation of Ukrainian players on the circuit: "
I'm for world peace, to be honest, and that's all I can say
.
Like his compatriots and the Belarusians, Medvedev has been competing under a neutral flag since the start of the war.
And avoid as much as possible questions about this war, initiated by Russia.
The subject is necessarily sensitive.
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ATP Ranking
Clumsiness or provocation?
Ahead of her match against Jessica Pegula, Anastasia Potapova of Russia entered the court wearing a Spartak Moscow jersey as the Russian invasion in Ukraine is in full swing.
The 28th World justified herself by saying that she was "
a fan of Spartak
".
The Polish Iga Swiatek, who faces today in the quarter-finals the Romanian Sorena Cirstea (7 p.m. in France), strongly criticized the exit of Potapova "
There is a lot of tension in the locker room and I don't think we have the leadership to regulate certain behaviors.
I am very surprised to see Russian girls wearing jerseys of their country's football team, for example.
I don't think it's good to show that kind of feeling, even if you're a fan of this team, and I hope they understood that.
I spoke to the WTA officials about it and they told me that such situations would not happen again, which gave me a lot of relief.
»
On Monday, Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko (95th) forfeited just before her third round against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
She told Ukrainian site
Big Tennis
that she suffered a "
panic attack
" after a conversation with WTA boss Steve Simon about the consequences of the war in his country.
“
A few days ago I had a conversation with the CEO of the WTA and I was absolutely shocked by what I heard.
He told me that he himself was against the war but that if Russian or Belarusian players supported it, it was their own opinion and that the opinion of others should not bother me
”.
The women's tennis body had tried to calm things down in a press release: "
The WTA has consistently expressed its full support for Ukraine and strongly condemns the actions of the Russian government.
That said, a fundamental principle of the WTA remains: athletes must be able to participate in professional tournaments on the basis of their merits and without any form of discrimination, without being penalized by the decisions taken by the leaders of their countries”
.
Read alsoTennis: Ukrainian Tsurenko explains her package against Belarusian Sabalenka in Indian Wells by a “panic attack”
And the tensions and controversies are a priori far from over in the small world of tennis.
The
Daily Mail
has revealed that under pressure from the ATP and WTA, Russian and Belarusian players will once again be able to compete in Wimbledon (July 3-16).
The Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, mother of Skaï Monfils, and who should soon return to competition, did not hide her anger in remarks reported by the
Daily Mail
:
“If Wimbledon allows Russian players to play this year, it's very sad because the war is still terrible, the Russian army still kills a lot of innocent people.
I think there is only one place where I trained that still exists.
Our sport has gone back at least ten years.
Our athletes cannot train properly, and there are 150 athletes who have been killed fighting on the front line.
It is obvious that these are not fair conditions.
Other sports, Olympic sports, don't allow Russian athletes to compete, it's pretty much only tennis that allows them and I don't know why it's like that”.
