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Tennis News –
Lesia Tsurenko: “For me it’s tough to be here, I feel a lot of terrible things. Probably all the Ukrainian players with psychologists right now” The Ukrainian shared her life experience on playing on Tour since the unjustified Russian invasion of her country “I'll be honest, I don't feel great playing. My first idea was to go home when it all started, and I had a long conversation inside of me that should I stay and play or should I just go to Ukraine and try to help there in some way, I don't know in which way, but just in some way. And it all affected Indian Wells and Miami a lot. And at that point I think when I played in Marbella and I finished and I had nowhere to go. It's just, you know, the life is very questionable now. And I get -- probably it's not the right word to say -- but I get a lot of questions. You know, do I have where to go, where to practice, where to live, should I continue playing. T thanks to my friend Marta Kostyuk, who told me about the place where she's practicing, Piatti Academy. It's a very nice place in Italy. So I practice there and their academy is taking very good care of me, and I really appreciate it. Just because I'm not 20 years old anymore and I'm old enough to understand a little bit more about this world and I understand that there is something much bigger than just a tennis match. It's not very easy to be here. I just decided that I will continue playing and I will try to win some matches, I will try to enjoy. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. I just want to enjoy every match. But at the same time, I don't feel that I care too much, you know. So I'm trying to find this balance between just go on court and don't care versus try to care, you know. In some cases it helps. Like, I don't really put pressure on myself, I just go and play. But in some ways I just feel like, okay, whatever, I win or lose, whatever. It doesn't matter really. The Wimbledon decision, of course as a Ukrainian, I think that I should show as much support for my country as I can, and I think it was the right decision from Wimbledon just to show some support from the tennis world. Of course, I didn't like the decision about playing with no points. I hope that, I don't know, I just hope that something will change in the tennis world in the mind of the players and in the mind of our association. But for now it is the way it is. Unfortunately for me, but what can we do with that? Do I feel the awareness or response from the tennis world is sufficient? Sometimes I just want to feel or maybe to see that people understand a little bit more about this life in general. Probably I just want them to think the way I think. I want people to understand that war is terrible and there is nothing worse in this world than a war. I think when it's not in your country you don't really understand how terrible it is. Of course there are people that are not involved so much, they don't see all the news that I see, all the pictures, all the videos that I see. I really feel that I hate what Russian propaganda is saying about Ukraine in general. I really hate it. I feel a lot of anger because there is a lot of lie about my country and it hurts me a lot. I want the whole world to see that Ukraine is a beautiful country with beautiful people. I don't know if I can ask players to care more, but I would like to see that from the WTA, from ATP, I would like top players just to support more and to show more understanding of what is really going on. Because it's just, you know, it's just life and life is, as I said before, is more than a tennis match. So, yeah, this is what I would like to share and, but it's three months of the war at the moment, so I think if, I don't know, I don't think that much will change, but... For me personally, it's tough to be here, just because I don't get much words said about the support of my country and this is, yeah, it's just tough to be with people who looks like they don't understand. It's just tough. It's just because it's me, I'm Ukrainian, and there's a war in my country and it's tough. I think five players spoke to me, maybe four or five. Maybe few more coaches. I would like to get more support probably, but what can I do? >>> Lesia Tsurenko: “I really appreciate Iga’s support, Poland is doing so much for Ukraine. They are all amazing” Did I say anything to anybody at the WTA regarding ranking points at Wimbledon? Yes, of course, a lot of times, a lot of times. I’ve heard nothing that can make me happy. I think my personal opinion is that as we see a lot of sports, they banned Russian, a number of Russian players and in tennis it's only one tournament. I honestly think that this is not a very big price for them to pay or to accept. I think it's not too much, it's not much, really, it's just one tournament. But, I don't know, for them they feel like they are losing their job. And I also feel many bad things, I feel a lot of terrible things and I think compared to that, losing a chance to play in one tournament is nothing. How would I feel about facing Russian players? I don't feel good to play against Russian and Belarusian players just because it reminds me what is going on in my country. I don't feel good and it was also another question that I had inside of me if I should play or I should just give up, you know, should I just decide not to play against them. But my personal decision is to play, just because, as I said, I'm not 20 years old, I don't know how many more months or years I'm going to play, so I just want to take every chance to play matches, because I did not play much, many matches in the last three years because of injury. For me it's a lot, there are many things going on and I cannot just give up on some matches. But it's painful, I'll be honest, it's very painful and I'm always hoping not to get them in my draw. This is another thing that I will, that maybe people should hear that being Ukrainian and trying to stay on tour and to continue playing is a big, big issue now, like probably we all are working with psychologists now, we are all thinking a lot about the country and about our families. So, yeah, it's tough, and every time you get some extra thing like playing Russian or Belarusian player, it's tough mentally”. Website BTU - Ukrainian Tennis - joins the fundraising to help internally displaced persons in Dnipropetrovsk Region
You can support those, who have been forced to flee their homes due to the Russian military aggression, with a donation via PayPal? Источник: btu.org.ua |
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