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No longer as elegant as it used to be: Roland Garros continues to expose the cracks in tennis | Israel Hayom

2023-06-05T16:22:51.905Z

Highlights: The sport, which has maintained a classy and stylish image, is experiencing cracks that culminate in the Grand Slam. The Russia-Ukraine war is one of the worst blows inflicted on the sports world. Russian and Belarusian tennis players rarely give interviews to the media. Ukrainians are just looking for the moments when they can point the finger at the country that invaded its territory. If once it was not possible to hear a chirp in tennis, today the sport suffers from a noisy crowd.


The sport, which has maintained a classy and stylish image, is experiencing cracks that culminate in the Grand Slam due to the Russia-Ukraine war • Is the sport we have become accustomed to with a unique aura shining above it, "spoiling" in front of our eyes, or is it just the spirit of the times?


Since the beginning of the incarnation of modern tennis in the 19th century, no sport has maintained an image as classy and stylish as "white sports." This name not only describes the color of classic clothing, but also its purity. It's just that in a crazy world like the one we're in, which doesn't always go to good places, cracks in a perfect sport like tennis are also starting to form.

We have seen these cracks very well over the past year and a half in various tennis tournaments, and in the last week at Roland Garros quite a bit. The Russia-Ukraine war, which for those who managed to forget is still going on - for almost a year and a half - is one of the worst blows inflicted on the sports world and as a result has not spared even the cleanest sport there is.

Forgoing the traditional handshake ceremony after the end of a match between a Russian or Belarusian and Ukrainian player has been repeated again and again at the current Grand Slam and will be repeated at least once more. That is expected to happen at a meeting between Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, ranked second in the world and one of the claimants to the crown, and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, ranked 192nd in the world.

Why at least? Because if Svitolina stuns Sabalenka and advances to the semifinals at her expense, and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beats Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, the two will meet in the last 4 stage – and you can all guess what will happen at the end of the match, or rather what will not happen.

Sabalenka in action in France, photo: AFP

Sabalenka has already been part of that situation at Roland Garros. It happened to her in the first round against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, when the latter refused to shake her hand. The situation will not be foreign to Svitolina, either, she has already refused to shake hands with two Russian opponents at the tournament and even Russia's Daria Kasatkina, who herself has criticized the war and Vladimir Putin in the past.

"I didn't shake hands with them and I won't shake Sabalenka. Nothing will change," Svitolina told anyone who hoped she might change her decision.

Svitolina declares: 'Nothing will change', Photo: Reuters

Fans are fed up too

Not very strangely, Russian and Belarusian tennis players rarely give interviews to the media, which are just looking to ask about the war, while Ukrainians are just looking for the moments when they can point the finger at the country that invaded its territory.

Sabalenka, for example, has twice boycotted post-match press conferences for fear of tough questions, while Svitolina claims that "holding a press conference is a great thing. Players share their moments on and off the field."

Elina Svitolina on Aryna Sabalenka skipping Press Conference:

"It's tough for me to say from my side. I've been on court for a couple hours & haven't seen anything from that on her situation. It's her choice to do that. It's tough for me to judge... It's not my business" pic.twitter.com/85slIUZQmK

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 2, 2023

This war has brought the tennis world (and, as we have already said, the entire sports world) a deep rift, whose chances of recovering will only exist on the day when a ceasefire is officially declared, and frankly, even then it is not certain that this will happen.

Meanwhile, those who do not like this practice, and regardless of it also continue to cause trouble for the entire industry, are the fans. If once it was not possible to hear a chirp in the stands of this elegant sport, today quite a few players suffer from a noisy crowd, which seeks to hang on to any inappropriate behavior of any player, in order to give free rein to provocations.

The fans at Roland, for example, did not like, to put it mildly, the refusal of Ukrainian handshakes, and even made Sabalenka think that the boos heard after the match against Kostyuk were directed at her – when in fact they were directed at the brave Ukrainian at all. "I was surprised, but then I felt their support," the world number two admitted to the crowd, which wants to see sportsmanship, and maybe doesn't really care about wars.

The crowd at Roland Garros. He doesn't care about wars, Photo: AP

Another example of the ambivalence between justice and injustice could be seen in the women's doubles match, when Japan's Miu Kato hit an unintentional ball and hit a young ball carrier (did anyone say Novak Djokovic?). At first, it seemed that the event would only pass with a warning, but the opposite duo insisted on disqualifying their rivals – and so it did. The crowd on the field was stunned and booed the decision, and the network did not feel sorry for the couple who did everything to win.

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Is the tennis world, the one we have become so accustomed to having a unique aura shining above it, "spoiling" before our eyes? Or is it just the spirit of the times, which knows how to amplify even the smallest event? There is no single truth, and perhaps this is the big problem.

Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us

Source: israelhayom

All sports articles on 2023-06-05

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