Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hangs over tennis like no other sport

Elina Svitolina is one Ukrainian player on the WTA Tour, where Ukrainians and Russians meet regularly. Sebastien Bozon / AFP via Getty Images

By Charlie Eccleshare [see below for bio]

The New York Times, June 2, 2026 l Updated June 3, 2026; 

original article contains numerous links

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 French Open quarterfinals.

It’s easy to think of tennis’ relationship with Russia’s war in Ukraine through the prism of a few key moments.

Russian player Andrey Rublev wrote “no war please” on a camera lens in February 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion.

In September 2022, Daria Kasatkina, also Russian, described the war as a “full-blown nightmare” in a series of interviews in which she also came out as gay. Kasatkina earlier this year defected to Australia, saying in a news conference, “if I want to be myself, I have to make this step.”

Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing in 2022, to which the ATP and WTA Tours responded by withholding ranking points from the tournament. They returned to the tournament in 2023.

At the 2023 French Open, current world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was repeatedly questioned about her association with Aleksandr Lukashenko, her country’s president and an ally of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

And at the 2026 French Open, the women’s quarterfinals features two Ukrainians, three Russians, a Belarusian, and a Pole — all countries involved in Russia’s invasion, with Belarus an ally of Russia and Poland of Ukraine. The two Ukrainians, Marta Kostyuk and Elina Svitolina, met Tuesday, and after a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win, Kostyuk dedicated her victory to the people of her country.

Kostyuk will face Russia’s prodigious teen talent Mirra Andreeva, and if they win that, there is a three-out-of-four chance that they will face a Russian or Belarusian in the final.

The high number of Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian players on the WTA Tour — and the fact that they can face each other almost every week of the year — makes tennis a singular sport regarding the felt influence of the war. There can be flashpoints elsewhere, like Putin congratulating Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin for breaking the NHL’s goal-scoring record, but tennis exhibits the impact of the conflict on a more regular basis than any other sport. Ovechkin said “please, no more war” when asked about the invasion in 2022.

Svitolina, the world No. 7, is one of seven Ukrainians in the WTA Tour top 100, along with Kostyuk (No. 15), Dayana Yastremska (No. 45), Yuliia Starodubtseva (No. 55), Anhelina Kalinina (No. 60), Oleksandra Oliynykova (No. 65) and Daria Snigur (No. 93).

Marta Kostyuk and Dayana Yastremska were partners at the 2024 Paris Olympics.Miguel Medina / AFP via Getty Image

There are 8 Russians and Belarusians in the WTA top 100, including world No. 1 Sabalenka and world No. 8 Andreeva.

To cope with the frequent matchups against one another and proximity to each other on top of the everyday reality in their home country is a huge ask for all the Ukrainian players on the tour. “We are living with the unimaginable challenges, pressure, and just not knowing what’s coming tomorrow,” as Svitolina said in an interview with The Athletic last year. She went on to describe juggling time differences and training schedules to speak each day to her 86-year-old grandmother, Tamara, who remains with an uncle in Odessa, the southern port city still targeted by Russian missile attacks.

This year in Paris, Kostyuk won her opening-round match before describing how, that morning, a missile had landed just 100 meters from her parents’ house in Kyiv. Oliynykova again directly criticized Sabalenka and Diana Shnaider, who meet in the quarterfinals, for actions that she said represented support for their leaders. Sabalenka said she wanted peace in an Australian Open news conference after similar criticism from Oliynykova, while Shnaider declined to engage with her comments during French Open news conferences.

In April last year, Lesia Tsurenko’s lawsuit against the WTA and its chairman Steve Simon over their response to the Russian invasion. Svitolina, Kostyuk and Yastremska are not plaintiffs in Tsurenko’s lawsuit, but they are named in relation to meetings held between the WTA Tour and the Ukrainian players in the early stages of Russia’s invasion.

In the lawsuit, Tsurenko, a 35-year-old Ukrainian who has been ranked as high as No. 23, alleges “a breach of contract, negligence, negligent supervision and retention” and “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”

The lawsuit alleged that a series of interactions regarding Russia’s invasion, with WTA Tour executives and with Simon, who was its chief executive at the time, led to her suffering from “bouts of insomnia” and “crying episodes”, as well as experiencing a panic attack before a match against Sabalenka in Indian Wells, Calif. in March 2023. It alleges that Simon told Tsurenko: “It is OK to support the war. It is another person’s opinion and it should not hurt you.”

In a statement sent to The Athletic regarding the lawsuit, the WTA pointed to its belief “that individual athletes should not be penalized for the actions of their governments”. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the WTA said in a joint statement with the ATP and International Tennis Federation (ITF): “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.”

The statement also indicated that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to compete at tennis events, but not under their countries’ flags. This policy remains in place, despite the International Olympic Committee lifting its recommendation that Belarusian athletes compete in this way.

Tsurenko’s suit was dismissed in March, but in the months since its filing, the consistency of Ukrainian and Russian or Belarusian players meeting in high-pressure matches has not gone away. Kostyuk and Andreeva met in the Madrid Open final in April, which Kostyuk won. She did not address Andreeva in her victory speech, and said during an interview ahead of the French Open: “Whether I win or I lose, I never had a problem acknowledging my opponent.

“But in that moment when I’m on the stage, and I give a speech, I want to be compassionate with people in Ukraine, who are almost daily being bombarded by Russia and Belarus.”

Ukrainian tennis players do not shake hands with Russians and Belarusians at the end of matches, even those who have publicly denounced or criticized the war. Oliynykova has been more direct in her criticism than most of her compatriots, saying during an interview at the French Open that “it’s a lot of motivation for me to be here, to speak, and to do the best I can for my country, for my people,” she said.

“For me, tennis is just a game,” she said ahead of her loss to Shnaider in the third round.

Charlie Eccleshare is a senior tennis writer for The Athletic, having previously covered soccer as the Tottenham Hotspur correspondent for five years. He joined in 2019 after five years writing about football and tennis at The Telegraph.