“I feel good being at the tournament without having to see players from that countries again,” she mentioned of Wimbledon’s ban of these nationalities right here. “In most of the cases it’s nothing personal. It’s just the situation that our countries are in a war now. So, yeah, for me it’s definitely less tension and I feel better.”
She mentioned, “I don’t feel good seeing them because, as I have said before, it’s, again, it’s about me personally. I don’t know about other Ukrainian players, but I just heard one Belarusian player that she’s, like, she’s supporting us, me, and Ukraine, and she’s against the war. I haven’t heard 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 anything to me makes me feel bad and creating this tension inside of me.”
Tsurenko, who ranks No. 101 in the world and has gone perched as excessive as No. 23 in her lengthy profession, performs in her thirty sixth Grand Slam match right here, and the draw has shouted one thing unusual. Having overwhelmed Jodie Burrage of Great Britain 6-2, 6-3 in a clear first-round match on one of the medium-sized courts, No. 18, Tsurenko in some way will play Wednesday for the first time towards fellow Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, a Thirty fourth-ranked 25-year-old whose mother and father’ home has holes torn in it from bombs.
“Yeah, I mean, thanks god they are alive, they are safe,” Kalinina mentioned from the identical room about half an hour after Tsurenko. “But they live like many other Ukrainians, on the bags, so you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow because everything looks like sometimes quiet. But then yesterday was two rockets in Kyiv, in the center. Yes, they are living on the bags and praying every day.”
She mentioned, “There are huge holes in the house, like, huge holes … So now this home is getting rebuilt so they can’t live there. So they live in my apartment where I’m living with my husband. It’s a very small apartment for my family, because, like, my Mom and Dad, my brother, and they have pets.”
“We are all helping each other in any way we can,” Tsurenko mentioned, “but this is the feeling that all the Ukrainians are getting. I also spoke a lot to my sister, and she told me that probably if you just go in the street and you just speak to random person, saying, ‘I need help,’ he’s gonna help you. It’s just the feeling that how united we feel now, all the Ukrainians. So I think it’s great that two of us are meeting in the second round, and so it will be one Ukrainian in the third round, for sure. I think it’s just good in any way.”
Then she thought of Wimbledon’s everlasting rule about all-white apparel and mentioned to the Wimbledon official monitoring the news convention, “Can we wear the (Ukraine) ribbon on the match?”
“I don’t know,” the moderator mentioned. “I will check for you.”
“Yeah, because today I was not sure.”
“The main thing that I would wish to happen,” she mentioned quickly thereafter, “that we get a lot of heavy weapon. You know, it’s just that we should remind with the fact that we are here and we are playing for my country, for Ukraine. We just want to remind that Ukraine is in trouble and we need help. I think as many appearances we have, like in sport, for example, for me, it’s just another way to show that we are strong nation and to remind the world that we are here and we still have war and, I don’t know, in some way, we need help. We still need help to win this war.”
Since the Russian invasion with Belarusian approval on Feb. 24, Tsurenko has performed in Indian Wells (Calif.), Miami, Marbella (Spain), Istanbul, the French Open in Paris, and grass-court preps in Birmingham and Eastbourne right here in England. She has taken up a base in Italy. Kalinina has gone from occasion to occasion and “hotel to hotel,” she mentioned, after exiting Ukraine on Feb. 17. Tsurenko has retired from two matches, misplaced a walkover in one other, reached the quarterfinals in Eastbourne and suffered a harsh first-round draw (No. 1 Iga Swiątek) in Paris. Kalinina has change into Ukraine’s top-ranked participant, bolting from No. 52 to No. 34.
Tsurenko has seen a element each useful and somber.
“I feel I just play better,” she mentioned, “just because for me emotionally — for me emotionally, winning or losing doesn’t exist anymore. For me, there is a big issue in my life: It’s war. And there is nothing else that can (distract from) this.”
She mentioned, “I don’t feel good. I feel really worried, especially because I know that they (Russians) are trying to get the one object, which is 100 meters away from my home, from the building where I live (in Kyiv). So every time is like my area, my area of the city were I live gets bombed, so every time I’m like — I feel, yeah, I think when the war started, I start to feel this tension inside of me, and I think even if I work every day with psychologist and I try to, I don’t know, anyway, try to avoid this emotions, it’s impossible. And I think this feeling this tension will only be released when the war will finish.”
She mentioned her sister has come to Italy and her mom has promised to affix however, in the grand custom of cussed mothers in all places, “I don’t believe her.”
“For me,” Tsurenko mentioned, “the toughest part now is that a lot of people that I know that they are on the front line now. One guy been taken by the Russians, so we don’t know what is going on with him. We know that he’s alive. Two more guys are fighting there at the moment, and a few people dead already because of the war, yeah.”
“I’m helping a lot to my family,” Kalinina mentioned. “I’m helping a lot to my grandmother and grandfather who is in occupied territory now. They can’t leave. So next door is like Russian soldiers with all their military stuff … I’m not superstar, so I’m helping with what I can. And it’s a lot to them, and for me that’s huge motivation to play. Huge.”