Tennis leaders dropped the ball in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iga Swiatek says.
In a new interview with BBC, Swiatek slammed a “lack of leadership” among WTA and ATP executives in responding after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine.
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“I feel like tennis, from the beginning, could do a bit better in showing everybody that tennis players are against the war,” Swiatek told BBC. “I feel they could do more to make that point and tell their views, and help us cope a bit better in the locker room because the atmosphere there is pretty tense.”
Swiatek said in post World War II, Germans, Italians and Japanese athletes were not allowed to play internationally, and because nations use sporting success as propaganda, tennis should have banned Russians and Belarusians to prevent them from using that platform to glorify an invading nation.
Swiatek’s comments come after Wimbledon announced it will lift its ban on Russian and Belarusian players.
“I heard that after World War Two, German players were not allowed as well as Japanese and Italian, and I feel like this kind of thing would show the Russian government that maybe it’s not worth it,” the 21-year-old Swiatek the BBC. “I know it’s a small thing because we are just athletes, a little piece in the world but I feel like sport is pretty important and sport has always been used in propaganda.
“This is something that was considered at the beginning, tennis didn’t really go that way, but now it would be pretty unfair for Russian and Belarusian players to do that because this decision was supposed to be made a year ago.”
Photo credit: Adam Pretty/Getty
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