Game, set, war – Ukraine’s battle on the court

In no other sport is the Russia-Ukraine war so keenly felt as in women’s tennis.

It’s been more than four years since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Over time, the war has faded from headlines, drifted out of public view, and been eclipsed by more recent conflicts (Opens in new window).

But for the world’s elite tennis players, the realities of the war are fresh and sharp and personal.

This year’s French Open tournament coincided with a marked escalation in hostilities (Opens in new window). On the red clay, Ukrainian players made a statement – both on and off the court.

After her first round match at Roland Garros, Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk told the crowd a Russian missile had landed sickeningly close to her family home the night before (Opens in new window).

“Most of the morning I felt sick just from a thought that if it was 100 metres closer, I probably wouldn’t have a mum and a sister today,” she said.

On 1 June, the eve of an emotional quarterfinal between Kostyuk and her compatriot Elina Svitolina, more than 20 people were killed (Opens in new window) in an aerial bombardment.

"We had a very difficult night again in Ukraine, especially in Kyiv,” Kostyuk said after her victory. “So many people dead. And I want to give this match to Ukrainian people and to their resilience.”

This year’s women’s clay-court season was dominated by Ukrainian and Russian players, with Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva winning the French Open on 6 June, and Ukraine’s Svitolina and Kostyuk winning titles in Rome and Madrid respectively.

There are seven Ukrainians and seven Russians in the top 100 in women’s tennis (Opens in new window). That doesn’t include a spate of recent defections by Russians to other nationalities. Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus – which is implicated because its territory was used as a launchpad for Putin’s invasion – is world number one in the sport.

With tennis tournaments held almost every week of the year, these players from warring countries frequently face off (Opens in new window)in an arena where battles are fought with backhands and volleys rather than missiles and drones.

The way the tennis world has handled the crisis has been messy from the start, and it has led to plenty of awkward moments. Russian and Belarusian players do not presently compete under their country name and flag, but in an individual sport like tennis, it hardly registers.

Since 2022, Ukrainians have refused to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian opponents. They also often refuse to pose for photos together, in a visual reminder of the simmering tensions.

The absence of a handshake has not always been communicated clearly to spectators, resulting in some players being booed off the court (Opens in new window) for what’s perceived as unsporting conduct. Kostyuk was booed by the French Open crowd in 2023 (Opens in new window) after refusing to shake hands with Sabalenka.

Soon after Russia’s 2022 invasion, Wimbledon banned (Opens in new window) Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing. It was a controversial decision. The men’s and women’s tennis governing bodies – the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) – stripped Wimbledon of its ranking points as a result. The ban was clearly untenable, and it was reversed the following year.

The highest-ranked Ukrainian, Svitolina, has been vocal about the war (Opens in new window) from the outset. She returned to tennis in 2023 after giving birth to her daughter. Commentators frequently cite motherhood and the situation in her home country as reasons for her more aggressive style of play. For a time, she had an unbeaten record against Russian opponents (Opens in new window) since the outbreak of the war.

Oleksandra Oliynykova, who broke through at this year’s Australian Open, has fast become the most outspoken player on the tour. Visually striking with her neck tattoos and temporary silver freckles, the world number 51 is using tennis as a platform for her country’s cause.

“This war defines my life, because my future is in Ukraine,” she said during a press conference at this year’s French Open. Oliynykova still lives and trains in Ukraine, regularly making the 10-hour car journey from the border to Kyiv. Her father is in the Ukrainian army and her boyfriend is a soldier.

“If I’m going to be silent, I don’t understand what I’m doing here. And how could I? If I could not do everything to help Ukraine to win this war, my life would be destroyed, the people I love, they would be killed. I will be killed. I don’t see any other option for me.”

She has not shied away from calling out her Russian opponents (Opens in new window) – whether for their silence, their Instagram likes of what she describes as propagandists, or for competing in a Russian exhibition funded by state-owned gas company Gazprom.

For that, she says she has been silenced by the WTA and threatened with fines for her criticisms of other players. The WTA, for its part, has said (Opens in new window) “that individual athletes should not be penalised for the actions of their governments”, and that while its athletes have the right to express themselves, the WTA is committed to maintaining a professional and respectful environment.

“The WTA recognises that the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to have a profound and deeply personal impact on many of our athletes. We remain unequivocal in condemning Russia’s war on Ukraine and have consistently supported our Ukrainian players since the start of the conflict,” it said in a statement to tennis outlet Bounces (Opens in new window).

What jars Oliynykova most is the contrast between the glamour on display in the tennis world and life on the ground back home.

“I see this reality. I see the buildings destroyed. I hear the attacks. Then I’m coming to the tournaments where everything is so fancy, so glamorous,” she told Bounces (Opens in new window).

In an interview with The Tennis Podcast, she took a swipe at world number one Sabalenka, who is also a global ambassador for the Italian fashion brand Gucci: “When the women players, who [have so much] influence, [are] pretending the only thing they can think about is a Gucci bag. That’s … absurd. And for me that’s very triggering.”

Under pressure in 2023, Sabalenka said she didn’t support the war (Opens in new window) or Belarusian strongman President Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko has a history of persecuting political enemies, including athletes (Opens in new window).

Oliynykova and her fellow Ukrainians are unmoved by suggestions that if a Russian or Belarusian athlete were to condemn the war, it could pose a risk to themselves or their loved ones under the oppressive regimes of Putin and Lukashenko.

Kostyuk was recently asked if she could understand Russian players’ reluctance to comment due to potential repercussions.

“I wish there was some more clear stance on what’s going on, especially when your country is killing other people. I don’t know how you can sleep peacefully at night when you know this is going on and you have nothing to say about it,” Kostyuk said.

“They’ve made it very clear whose side they are on, so again, this is their burden to carry, and this is what they live with – not me.”

Kostyuk said ex-Russian player Daria Kasatkina, who criticised the war and also came out as gay (Opens in new window), had had people come to her parents’ apartment, apparently to intimidate them. Kasatkina now plays for Australia. (Opens in new window)

As Russian strikes destroyed homes in Kyiv (Opens in new window)and Ukraine’s drones targeted St Petersburg (Opens in new window), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week called for a face-to-face meeting (Opens in new window) with Putin in a bid to end the war, to which Putin said (Opens in new window) there would be “no point”.

With Wimbledon – the most prestigious event on the tennis calendar – just weeks away, and the conflict showing no signs of resolution (Opens in new window), the influence of the war will continue to play out on the court, point by point.