With the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, tennis has seen a huge rise in divergent views. And consequently, Ukrainian players and their allies in the sport have promoted the exclusion of the Russian and Belarusian players from the tours.
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On the other hand, the other lot has condemned the hostile actions, while rejecting the inclusion of politics into the sport. Recently, the reports of the grandparents of a Ukrainian tennis player, Anhelina Kalinina, have surfaced bringing concern to the matter.
The situation of the family of Anhelina Kalinina in Ukraine
Anhelina Kalinina, a 37th-ranked tennis player from Ukraine, has been in news due to an ongoing conflict between Russia – Ukraine. The reports of her grandparents suffering due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict have drawn the worldwide attention.
Right now Kalinina’s grandparents live on temporally occupied territory in 🇺🇦: "They’re stuck there. There are so many RU soldiers, rockets and all other military stuff. Actually just behind their house basically. That’s how they live". #tennis #Ukraine #StandWithUkraine
🇺🇦🗨️ Learn more about Ukraine’s No. 1 Anhelina Kalinina: her life on Tour, hard work, rankings and war. #tennis #Ukraine #StandWithUkraine 🎾 Source: The Functional Tennis Podcast (in English) 👉 link.chtbl.com/anhelina-kalin… 🎾 Quotes (in Ukrainian) 👇 btu.org.ua/ua/golovne/405…
Ukraine Tennis’ page on Twitter shared the news and stated, “Right now Kalinina’s grandparents live on temporally occupied territory in Ukraine.” It stated her quotes. She said, “They’re stuck there. There are so many RU soldiers, rockets and all other military stuff. Actually just behind their house, basically. That’s how they live.”
The status of tennis amidst the conflict
The rising conflict in the region has brought concerning information to the front. This conflict has affected the sport severely. Undoubtedly, there are allies of the Ukrainian people who condemn the move and have asked for the ban on the Belarusian and Russian players from the tours.
USA Today via Reuters
Sep 7, 2021; Flushing, NY, USA; Elina
Svitolina of Ukraine celebrates winning the second set against Leylah Fernandez of Canada on day nine of the 2021 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Other Ukrainian players like Elina Svitolina and former tennis players like Alexandr Dolgopolov and Sergiy Stakhovsky have also raised their voices against the participation of Russian and Belarusian players in the tour.
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On the other hand, we have tennis players like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. They have condemned the inclusion of politics into the sport.
What is the way out?
Moreover, Wimbledon has also banned the players from the two countries from playing in the grass-court major tour; this has driven mixed opinions from the players. Tennis, as a sport, has faced the brunt of the conflict.
A sport that has always promoted sportsmanship qualities like brotherhood and inclusivity is now in an edgy situation. The only way out of it is that authorities should resolve the conflict soon and they should return to normalcy.
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So, the sport can continue without any divergence.