Elina Switolina played at the tennis tournament in Monterrey, Mexico, and won the first round comfortably: In normal times, such a success at the start of the tournament would hardly be worth mentioning. The fact that this match on Wednesday night German time was a highly emotional one to the end was due to the terrible circumstances. Svitolina is Ukrainian, and on the other hand, Anastasiya Potapova was a competitor whose country is at war with Svitolina’s homeland.
That’s why the 27-year-old didn’t initially want to play against the Russian, but decided otherwise after the International Tennis Federation ITF and the professional organizations ATP and WTA had condemned the invasion on Tuesday and decreed that Russian and Belarusian professionals should no longer be in the country until further notice were allowed to participate in tournaments under the names and flags of their countries. Like Switolina, other Ukrainian professionals had requested this the day before according to the relevant IOC recommendation and criticized the hesitation of tennis officials.
After her match point, Elina Switolina, who played in the national colors (yellow top, blue tennis skirt), revealed how much the war means to her. She hit her chest several times, after which she said in a shaky voice: “I’m not just playing for myself here. I play for my country, I play to help the Ukrainian army and for people in need.”
In order not to feel “useless” any longer, she made her prize money available to the national defense; if she won the tournament, this would be 28,000 euros. She is going through “the worst time of her life,” said Switolina, who speaks to her parents and relatives back in Ukraine whenever possible. Despite all the sadness, she was “but also glad that I can play tennis here”.
Her compatriot Dajana Jastremska also showed mixed feelings. After the 21-year-old had holed up in an underground car park in her hometown of Odessa for the first two days of the war and then fled to France with her six-year-old sister at the behest of her parents, she won her opening game against Ana Bogdan in Lyon. With her heart in her homeland, with her spirit on the tennis court, Jastremska said after the game, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag: “I’m fighting for my country and its heroes.” The mission is far from over.
