Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hangs over tennis like no other sport

It’s easy to think of tennis’ relationship with Russia’s war in Ukraine through the prism of a few key moments.

Russian player Andrey Rublev wrote “no war please” on a camera lens in February 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion.

In September 2022, Daria Kasatkina, also Russian, described the war as a “full-blown nightmare” in a series of interviews in which she also came out as gay. Kasatkina earlier this year defected to Australia, saying in a news conference, “if I want to be myself, I have to make this step.”

Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing in 2022, to which the ATP and WTA Tours responded by withholding ranking points from the tournament. They returned to the tournament in 2023.

At the 2023 French Open, current world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was repeatedly questioned about her association with Aleksandr Lukashenko, her country’s president and an ally of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

For Ukraine’s tennis players, the war cannot be condensed into moments. It is an everyday existence that colors their careers in every aspect.

The high number of Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian players on the WTA Tour — and the fact that they can face each other almost every week of the year — makes tennis a singular sport regarding the felt influence of the war. There can be flashpoints elsewhere, like Putin congratulating Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin for breaking the NHL’s goal-scoring record, but tennis exhibits the impact of the conflict on a more regular basis than any other sport. Ovechkin said “please, no more war” when asked about the invasion in 2022.

Elina Svitolina, the world No. 18, is one of four Ukrainians in the WTA Tour top 100, along with Marta Kostyuk (No. 25), Dayana Yastremska (No. 46) and Anhelina Kalinina (No. 65). Tsurenko is currently world No. 239 after not competing for an extended period.

There are 14 Russians and Belarusians in the WTA top 100, including world No. 1 Sabalenka and world No. 7 Mirra Andreeva. There are four Russians in the ATP top 100, two of whom — Daniil Medvedev and Rublev — are in the top 10. The Ukrainian players had to travel to the United States for two fortnight-long, mandatory tournaments in early March, just after their President Vladimir Zelensky was berated by President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office for an alleged lack of gratitude toward the U.S.’s support of his country.

Then in April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States would decide if ending the war was “doable” after a series of meetings in Paris.

To cope with the frequent matchups against one another and proximity to each other on top of the everyday reality in their home country is a huge ask for all the Ukrainian players on the tour. “We are living with the unimaginable challenges, pressure, and just not knowing what’s coming tomorrow,” as Svitolina said in an interview with last month. She went on to describe juggling time differences and training schedules to speak each day to her 86-year-old grandmother, Tamara, who remains with an uncle in Odessa, the southern port city still targeted by Russian missile attacks.

A reminder of that permanence came with Lesia Tsurenko’s lawsuit against the WTA and its chairman Steve Simon over their response to the Russian invasion. Svitolina, Kostyuk and Yastremska are not plaintiffs in Tsurenko’s lawsuit, but they are named in relation to meetings held between the WTA Tour and the Ukrainian players in the early stages of Russia’s invasion.

In the lawsuit, Tsurenko, a 35-year-old Ukrainian who has been ranked as high as No. 23, alleges “a breach of contract, negligence, negligent supervision and retention” and “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”

The lawsuit adds that a series of interactions regarding Russia’s invasion, with WTA Tour executives and with Simon, who was its chief executive at the time, led to her suffering from “bouts of insomnia” and “crying episodes”, as well as experiencing a panic attack before a match against Sabalenka in Indian Wells, Calif. in March 2023. It alleges that Simon told Tsurenko: “It is OK to support the war. It is another person’s opinion and it should not hurt you.”

Lawyers representing the WTA and Simon have filed a motion to dismiss the suit, on the grounds that its claims are “legally defective.”

In a statement sent to regarding the lawsuit, the WTA pointed to its belief “that individual athletes should not be penalized for the actions of their governments”. That belief has underpinned its response to the war since it began. When the war broke out, the WTA said in a joint statement with the ATP and International Tennis Federation (ITF): “Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, and we commend the many tennis players who have spoken out and taken action against this unacceptable act of aggression.”

The statement also indicated that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to compete at tennis events, but not under their countries’ flags. This policy remains in place, with no mention of their nationality when they are introduced to the crowd at their matches. Ukrainian players do not shake hands with Russians and Belarusians at the end of matches, even those who have publicly denounced or criticized the war.

Some people feel that the WTA and tennis authorities should have been firmer over the past few years, others that Tsurenko’s allegations go beyond what can be reasonably expected of an organization. But neither of those things matter as much as the fact that while a headline-grabbing moment like this lawsuit, or Ukraine’s players last month dedicating their qualification for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals to the country’s soldiers, might put the war back into the wider tennis consciousness, the reality for Ukrainian players is as unrelenting as as the conflict’s presence within tennis is ubiquitous. In sports, as in the rest of society, it’s all too easy to let an ongoing war drift in and out of view.

Players like Tsurenko don’t have that luxury. They compete week in, week out in a sport in which everywhere they look there are reminders of what is happening in their country.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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