WIMBLEDON, England — Lesia Tsurenko’s Wimbledon marketing campaign ended Friday throughout a match wherein her head was someplace else.
Tsurenko, a 33-year-old tennis veteran from Kyiv, had been watching the information from dwelling all week and seeing that Russians had bombed a shopping center and different civilian targets.
“They’re just trying to kill as many people as possible,” Tsurenko mentioned of the Russian army.
Since February, she had gotten higher at retaining ideas in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine out of her thoughts when she was on the tennis court docket, however Friday was a nasty day. She mentioned she felt off-balance from the time she awoke, “like there was no ground beneath my feet.” And as soon as she took the court docket in opposition to Jule Neimeier of Germany, she mentioned she “had no idea how to play tennis.”
Juggling the fixed journey and bodily and psychological grind {of professional} tennis is difficult for even the most effective gamers. For gamers from Ukraine lately, who haven’t been dwelling in months and spend a lot of their free time getting updates on the well being and security of family and friends members again dwelling, the problem is monumental.
The excellent news for Tsurenko is she appears to have discovered a semi-permanent dwelling in northern Italy, at an academy run by the famed coach Ricardo Piatti. She has an house. Her sister, Oksana, lately joined her. So did her husband, Nikita Vlasov, a former army officer, who is prepared to return as quickly as he will get the decision however for the second the forces don’t want somebody at his stage.
“We have no problem with people,” Tsurenko mentioned, a short while after her defeat. “The problem is the heavy weapons.”
Tsurenko left Ukraine earlier than the conflict began, so she will not be technically a refugee. Recently, she had to miss a event so she may keep in Italy and file paperwork to permit her to stay there. She is ready for approval. Also, her mom, who lives close to Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, doesn’t need to go away, regardless of heavy bombing. The mom of her sister’s husband additionally lives there.
Her time enjoying tennis in England the previous month has supplied a respite. Russian and Belarusian gamers have been barred from competing at Wimbledon. Knowing how well-liked President Vladimir V. Putin stays in Russia, Tsurenko has assumed a number of the Russian and Belarusian gamers doubtless help him. It’s been higher, she mentioned, not bumping into them within the locker room, although she is going to quickly when the WTA Tour strikes exterior of Britain they usually return to competitors.
There have been many matches because the conflict started Feb. 24 when Tsurenko has puzzled what she is even doing enjoying tennis. One specific match in Marbella, Spain, stands out. That morning she had seen a photograph of an administration constructing in Mykolaiv with an enormous gap from a missile strike. She couldn’t get the picture out of her head.
Lately, although, she has discovered readability. She has at all times performed tennis as a result of she loves the sport. The riches the game provided by no means motivated her. Now they do.
“I play for the money now,” she mentioned. “I want to earn so much so I can donate this,” she mentioned, “I feel like that may be a bad quality, because it has nothing to do with tennis, but that is what I am playing.”
Coming into the event, Tsurenko, who has 4 profession WTA titles and has earned greater than $5 million, had received $214,000 to date this yr. Making the third spherical at Wimbledon earned her an extra $96,000. For the world’s a hundred and first ranked participant, that could be a strong month’s work. She hopes there will likely be extra forward this summer season.
