“Sport is politics”: Marta Kostyuk lauds Wimbledon decision to ban Russian, Belarusian players

Marta Kostyuk has long been a thoughtful, passionate speaker about various issues on tour, but the continued Russian-Belarusian attacks on Ukraine has given the her new focus and fire as she plays at Wimbledon for something greater than herself.

“I feel like things have become more stable, you know,” she said after a three-set win over Katie Swan. “I understood where my area is, what I need to focus on and what I need to achieve.”

Kostyuk, who celebrated her 20th birthday on Tuesday, was one of the first tennis players to speak out against Russia’s unprovoked act of aggression—pushing for the tours to reclassify Russian and Belarusian players as neutral athletes. Though they have been banned from participating in team competitions like Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup, Russians and Belarusians have continued playing tour events.

Wimbledon is the first, and so far only, tournament to completely ban players representing those countries, sidelining the likes of ATP world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and 2021 semifinalist Aryna Sabalenka.

“I feel good being at the tournament without having to see players from that countries again,” says Lesia Tsurenko, who will play fellow Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina in the second round. “In most of the cases it's nothing personal. It's just the situation that our countries are in a war now. For me it's definitely less tension and I feel better.”

The source of that tension, according to Tsurenko, is the collective silence of Russian and Belarusian athletes, most of whom, she says, have not reached out to her—even in private.

“I don't know about other Ukrainian players, but I just heard from one Belarusian player that she's supporting us, me, and Ukraine, and she's against the war.

“I haven't heard from anyone else that they are against the war. So, I don't know their opinion about that, and not speaking to me and not saying to me anything makes me feel bad and creating this tension inside of me.”

We can't compare WTA points, we cannot compare this ban of these players to what's going on currently in Ukraine. We cannot compare this what they are now missing and how many millions of people are killed, still dying, and how many refugees are brought and surviving, with mothers with their kids, people are out of money, out of family, out of their jobs. They don't have anything. Anhelina Kalinina

In response to the All England Club’s controversial move, the ATP and WTA tours stripped the tournament of ranking points, thereby leveling the playing field for those unable to compete. For those who may be disappointed by what may result in uneven Wimbledon results, Kalinina, who is in the midst of a career-best season, offered her own perspective on the situation.

“We can't compare WTA points, we cannot compare this ban of these players to what's going on currently in Ukraine,” she said after rallying from set down to defeat Anna Bondar. “We cannot compare this what they are now missing and how many millions of people are killed, still dying, and how many refugees are brought and surviving, with mothers with their kids, people are out of money, out of family, out of their jobs. They don't have anything. They are like homeless.”

This is no idle sentiment for Kalinina, who hasn’t been back to Ukraine since February but has had to deal with the devastating news that her parents’ apartment building was destroyed by Russian bombs.

“They now live in my apartment where I'm living with my husband. It's a very small apartment for my family, because, like, my mom, my dad, my brother, and they have pets. So, they are so happy and we are grateful that they can move, you know, that they have place to move from Irpin city because Irpin city, everyone knows how Bucha, Irpin, is fully bombed.”

Sport has always been politics and always will be. Like, they are one and another. Especially, as I said before, in the countries like Russia, sport has always been one of the most important events, because this is how they are trying to make the country look strong... Marta Kostyuk

Kostyuk, too, dismissed the idea that sport and politics can be separate, that Russians and Belarusians ought to be allowed to compete in a way that’s business as usual.

“Sport has always been politics and always will be,” she said. “Like, they are one and another. Especially, as I said before, in the countries like Russia, sport has always been one of the most important events, because this is how they are trying to make the country look strong by their sports people, how good they are, what ranking they are in the Olympic medal list and all these things.

“So, this is definitely, like especially countries like Russia and China, those things are, sport is extremely political. Honestly, I feel it's stupid when someone says sport is out of politics. It's really stupid.”

Set to face No. 33 seed Zhang Shaui in the hopes of reaching her first Wimbledon third round, Kostyuk admits that she while has achieved stasis, she knows no peace.

“I'm adapting,” she explains. “I feel like a lot of people have adapted to it. I'm not just talking about like Ukrainians. I'm just talking to people all over the world, because I can see how much lower, like, the impression of the whole thing is going on now. Like, I feel like people are talking about it a lot less than before, which is from one side understandable, but from the other side, it's leading, you know, to worse and worse things. It's not getting better.

"I don't think it will get better as long as the war is going on.”