Tennis Random, Random (On Court)

[Deuce]

Here's an article about the Svitolina situation. Included in the article is Potapova's response to Svitolina, which I consider much more sensible than Svitolina's position.
In her response, Potapova mentions that professional athletes "are essentially becoming hostages of the current situation".
She is right, and there is no need for this to happen. It accomplishes absolutely nothing constructive.
I empathize with Svitolina - and I liked her heartfelt post about her Motherland. But she should find a more constructive outlet for her understandable anxiety and grief rather than encouraging the 'guilt by association' philosophy.

I hope that Svitolina and Potapova play their match... And that when the match is finished, no matter who wins, I hope they will give each other a long, warm embrace at the net. That would send a much more significant, much more positive, and much more powerful message than removing the reference to Russia from the bios of Russian players.

In this article, there's also a little bit about a tennis related slap (literally). This, too, shows how out of hand this is getting. (The slap involves neither Svitolina nor Potapova...)

Potapova Responds to Svitolina...

.

[mmmm8]

Marta Kostyuk published a post similar to Elina's

[mmmm8]

Diana Yastremska and her 15 year old sister, who were evacuated from Ukraine just a couple days ago, played doubles in Lyon today after receiving a wildcard

[ponchi101]

Marta Kostyuk published a post similar to Elina's

Very well written and it seems, due to some syntax, that it was completely written by her (as was Svitolina's, I am not doubting that).
The recipe is simple: no tournaments in Russia (ATP/WTA) and no DC or Fed/BJK cup participation. Sounds reasonable, and almost the sole thing professional tennis can do.

[ponchi101]

Pavlyuchenkova is the first Russian ATHLETE (I think) that has come out and clearly condemn the war. I also applaud Rublev's camera post, but Pavs' is unequivocal. She is only short of calling Putin by name.
Which, in Russia, might be a dangerous thing to do. I would not return there for a while, if I were her.

[dryrunguy]

Pavlyuchenkova is the first Russian ATHLETE (I think) that has come out and clearly condemn the war. I also applaud Rublev's camera post, but Pavs' is unequivocal. She is only short of calling Putin by name.
Which, in Russia, might be a dangerous thing to do. I would not return there for a while, if I were her.

Except someone doesn't have to be physically in Russia for Putin's goons to get them. Poison travels quite nicely.

[ponchi101]

We know. That is the reason I find her stance brave. She knows there is really nowhere to be "safe", although I would say right now he has more important matters at hand than disciplining a young woman that plays tennis.

[JazzNU]

Pavlyuchenkova is the first Russian ATHLETE (I think) that has come out and clearly condemn the war. I also applaud Rublev's camera post, but Pavs' is unequivocal. She is only short of calling Putin by name.
Which, in Russia, might be a dangerous thing to do. I would not return there for a while, if I were her.

She's definitely not the first, but it might be the strongest statement. Also, she posted hers as a regular post on Twitter, not on IG Stories, which will disappear in 24 hours. It's much riskier, so I hope her family is safe, preferably not in Russia.

And I would say, though obviously, it's a strong and brave statement, it was just made yesterday, on the 28th. Don't discount other brave athletes, like Rublev, that came out days ago and helped pave the way for others to speak out. Nastia's statement was very strong, but she now has some comfort in knowing she's not alone in speaking out against this.

[JazzNU]

Joint Statement by the International Governing Bodies of Tennis

The international governing bodies of tennis stand united in condemnation of Russia’s actions

A deep sense of distress, shock and sadness has been felt across the entire tennis community following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the past week. Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, and we commend the many tennis players who have spoken out and taken action against this unacceptable act of aggression. We echo their calls for the violence to end and peace to return.

The safety of the tennis community is our most immediate collective priority. The focus of the WTA and ATP in particular in recent days has been on contacting current and former players, and other members of the tennis community from Ukraine and neighbouring countries, to check on their safety and offer any assistance.

The international governing bodies of tennis stand united in our condemnation of Russia’s actions and, as a result, are in agreement with the following decisions and actions:

• The WTA and ATP Boards have made the decision to suspend the WTA / ATP combined event, scheduled this October in Moscow.

• The ITF Board has made the decision to suspend the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation membership and to withdraw their entries from all ITF international team competition until further notice. This action follows the cancellation of all ITF tournaments in Russia and Belarus indefinitely.

• At this time, players from Russia and Belarus will continue to be allowed to compete in international tennis events on Tour and at the Grand Slams. However, they will not compete under the name or flag of Russia or Belarus until further notice.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/joint-s ... march-2022

[ponchi101]

Good, reasonable response.

[Deuce]

I agree with the measures except for the last one, which essentially states 'Let's all close our eyes and pretend that Russian players are not from Russia and Belarusian players are not from Belarus. If we close our eyes tight enough, then those two countries will just magically disappear.'
Putin is surely delusional - but refusing to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to indicate where they are from, and believing that this somehow fixes something to any degree, is also delusional.

We should look at the larger issue here - the implications of a measure like this...
I truly cannot see any point in removing the little country 'flags' next to their names and pretending that they are not what and who they are. What, exactly, does this accomplish - other than promoting the philosophy of guilt by association, which is not a good thing? Can anyone tell me anything positive or practical that this actually accomplishes?

I can understand banning Russia from team competitions where it's country vs. country.
But to punish to any degree individual athletes in any sport is wrong. And not allowing them to identify themselves as Russian or Belarusian is punishing them to a degree. What did they do to deserve this? Apparently, they entered the world in the 'wrong' place.
Saying or otherwise indicating that certain players are from Russia, or Belarus, does absolutely no harm!

If banning the country identification of Russians and Belarusians were done to protect the Russian and Belarusian athletes from crazy people who might target them by doing something harmful or dangerous to them, then it would have a practical and positive purpose. But it is not being done for that reason.

It's the same complete BS as the IOC calling the Russian team 'OAR' or 'ROC'. As if changing the mere surface accomplishes something!
We are taught from kindergarten to not judge a book by its cover... yet here are these major organizations and federations doing exactly that - they are saying that there is something gravely wrong with the book, but if we just remove or change the book's cover, that somehow makes everything ok.

People today are obsessed with only the surface of things, it seems. They believe that changing the surface also changes the substance. And it's as mind boggling as it is sad.

[skatingfan]

Symbols matter, if they didn't the flags would not have been there in the first place so removing the flags of Russia, and Belarus is a symbolic gesture in support of Ukraine. If anything it's more of an argument for removing the representation of nationalism from individual tennis tournaments. It's one thing for team events to be played under the national flag, particularly Davis/BJK Cup because those teams are organized by national federations, but the regular tour events don't need to have those symbols for any of the players. If people want to know where a player is from they can look it up.

As for barring players from Russia & Belarus from participating in sports in general I think it depends on the nature of the sport. In professional team sports like hockey, or football, the player is not representing a country they are playing for the team with which they have signed contracts. In golf, or tennis I would say it's similar in that the athletes are playing for themselves not their country. It's different with sports where the national governing body, which will be very connected to the government in Russia, is selecting athletes to compete. The athletes really are representing their country in those competitions so it seems appropriate at this time it suspend the participation of both Russia, and Belarus.

[mmmm8]

Symbols matter, if they didn't the flags would not have been there in the first place so removing the flags of Russia, and Belarus is a symbolic gesture in support of Ukraine. If anything it's more of an argument for removing the representation of nationalism from individual tennis tournaments. It's one thing for team events to be played under the national flag, particularly Davis/BJK Cup because those teams are organized by national federations, but the regular tour events don't need to have those symbols for any of the players. If people want to know where a player is from they can look it up.

As for barring players from Russia & Belarus from participating in sports in general I think it depends on the nature of the sport. In professional team sports like hockey, or football, the player is not representing a country they are playing for the team with which they have signed contracts. In golf, or tennis I would say it's similar in that the athletes are playing for themselves not their country. It's different with sports where the national governing body, which will be very connected to the government in Russia, is selecting athletes to compete. The athletes really are representing their country in those competitions so it seems appropriate at this time it suspend the participation of both Russia, and Belarus.

I agree with you in theory, but in reality that means punishing athletes in one sport and not in another, which is also unfair.

I don't know if there is a right answer for me in all this.

[meganfernandez]

Symbols matter, if they didn't the flags would not have been there in the first place so removing the flags of Russia, and Belarus is a symbolic gesture in support of Ukraine. If anything it's more of an argument for removing the representation of nationalism from individual tennis tournaments. It's one thing for team events to be played under the national flag, particularly Davis/BJK Cup because those teams are organized by national federations, but the regular tour events don't need to have those symbols for any of the players. If people want to know where a player is from they can look it up.

As for barring players from Russia & Belarus from participating in sports in general I think it depends on the nature of the sport. In professional team sports like hockey, or football, the player is not representing a country they are playing for the team with which they have signed contracts. In golf, or tennis I would say it's similar in that the athletes are playing for themselves not their country. It's different with sports where the national governing body, which will be very connected to the government in Russia, is selecting athletes to compete. The athletes really are representing their country in those competitions so it seems appropriate at this time it suspend the participation of both Russia, and Belarus.

I agree with you in theory, but in reality that means punishing athletes in one sport and not in another, which is also unfair.

I don't know if there is a right answer for me in all this.

For me, there's no right answer. This is largely emotional, I think, which is totally understandable. I can't relate to those emotions, so I'm not even trying to land somewhere. Just observing. I support them all. I'm just glad I'm not the one forced to make the call.

[ptmcmahon]

That was my thoughts too. It's easy for those of us in say North America to say "well that shouldn't matter" - but how can any of us really judge? We haven't experienced this, so we don't know what it feels like. If removing the country name/flag from the player's tournament entry mentally helps these players (especially ones who actually had to leave Ukraine) who are we to say that isn't "fixing" anything? We can't fairly judge that for them. We haven't walked a mile in their shoes.