“In my opinion, it is right that at Wimbledon they ask the players about their attitude, what they think about the war and who they support,” the sport.pl server quotes the currently best player in the world.
“We have to show the right values, which I will definitely be. In my opinion, everyone should be against that war,” added Šwiateková, who makes no secret of her support for the attacked Ukraine.
But her attitude is a thorn in Russia’s side. “I think Wimbledon has already reached its maximum attention in the whole political situation. It seems to me that none of the players want to talk much about that topic anymore, but Iga Šwiateková, as the first player in the world, probably believes that her opinion is somehow extremely important and she constantly expresses herself about it,” she commented on Polka’s statement for the Russian server Sport-Express former Olympic champion in doubles Jelena Vesninová, Russian tennis player born in Lviv, western Ukraine.
Aryna Sabalenka says she won’t talk about politics at Wimbledon PC:
“Before we continue I’d like to say I won’t talk about politics. I’m here to talk about tennis. If you have any political questions you can ask WTA. They can send you my transcripts from previous tournaments” pic.twitter.com/4Vycan2rlq
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) July 1, 2023
Russian athletes routinely refer to the brutal bloody war that their country has been waging against a neighboring state for almost a year and a half as a “political situation”.
Dmitry Svishchev, the chairman of the committee for sports and physical culture in the Russian Duma, also commented on Shwiatek, who categorically refused that Russian athletes should have to express their opinion in any way about the war in Ukraine or even sign their disapproval of the invasion.
“No organizer or country has the right to demand any political declarations from athletes. Everyone has their own political views which are private. So demanding these statements is illegal,” thundered Svishchev, who called Shwiatek’s words “propaganda”
Aryna Sabalenkova of Belarus found herself under a lot of pressure in this direction during the recent French Open, who refused to participate in press conferences during the tournament because she was asked questions about the war and her attitude.
At Wimbledon, she announced in advance that she would not answer such questions. “Before we go on, I want to say that I’m not going to talk about politics. So just about tennis, please. If you have political questions, please contact the WTA for my previous statement,” said the Wimbledon world number two, decrying last year’s absence from London.
At the French Open, she finally commented on the invasion and the attitude of her country’s leadership. “I don’t want my country to be in any kind of conflict, I don’t support war. If I don’t support the war, it means that I don’t support Alexander Lukashenko at the moment,” Sabalenkova said after her win over the Ukrainian Elina Svitolinova, who was previously photographed in a warm embrace with the Belarusian president.
2023-07-03 01:41:27
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