Kovitova said ahead of the Miami final that "Wimbledon should continue to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes this year." It also believes that athletes from both countries should not be allowed to compete in next year's Paris Olympics – even in a neutral capacity. ”
In this regard, two-time Grand Slam champion Kuznetsova expressed surprise and surprise at this interview with Kovitova at the time. A few days later, "Pants" wrote a special article refuting Kovitova's opinion.
"I've known Kovitova since I was a kid and we used to live the same life, sharing the dressing room in women's tennis for more than 10 years. I was really surprised by her statement, which was completely unreasonable. Obviously the Czechs are very resistant to the Russians, and now the whole world is promoting Russophobia, but I think athletes should not be involved, they just need to play well. ”
Kuznetsova also wrote: "I understand that politicians may play the 'tennis' card, but the ATP and WTA are trying to keep politics away from tennis." If we're going to expand on this topic, let's talk about the wars that have taken place in various countries throughout the modern era and the impact on sports.
Tennis players don't understand politics at all — I don't. The teammates of the national team also do not understand, why associate them with politics? ”
Clearly, the belly lawsuit between the female golfers has jumped from the dressing room to paper. Men's players, on the other hand, are relatively calm and have a bigger picture. Referring to Wimbledon's lifting of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players this year, Ruud also said that "where they were born is not their fault." As colleagues and rivals, it's a pity that they couldn't compete last year. It's one of the biggest and most historic tournaments we have, so it's fair and nice that they can play again. ”
Russian player Dmitry Medvedev said: "I don't have any Russian sponsors, and honestly, I will go to participate like all the other tournaments last year and it is a pleasure to be there and play in front of everyone." But I couldn't control the reaction of the audience and just wanted to contribute to the big stage. ”
Kachanov's understanding is more pragmatic: "All the Russian and Belarusian players really want to play there, we just want to play by the rules. I think we are already neutral, since the end of February last year, there has been no flag on display, right? So we just did the same as participating in other events, no different, and I myself have no sponsors from Russia. ”
In fact, the "pants" make sense: tennis players do not understand politics at all, athletes should not participate in it, they just need to play well, why associate them with politics?