Daniil Medvedev makes his position clear by giving a contrasting take on Aryna Sabalenka’s Ukraine war stance at Wimbledon
Unlike Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev is willing to talk about the war in the press conferences and take questions about it.
Aryna Sabalenka and Daniil Medvedev (Image via: WTA (left)/Tennis 360 (right)
In sports, athletes don’t only show their talents and passions on the field but also have a huge opportunity to influence and express themselves to the outside world. Recently Aryna Sabalenka and Daniil Medvedev have been at the top of the headlines as they face a difference of opinion about the conflict in Ukraine.
For the uninitiated, Aryna is the highest-ranked Belarusian player (currently World No. 2) and has condemned the war against Ukraine for months now. In Paris, Sabalenka said, “I don’t support war, which means I don’t support Lukashenko [the Belarus leader] right now.” As expected, her words have been heavily criticized by Elina Svitolina and other Ukrainian players.
While Sabalenka refuses to talk or even take questions about the war, the other Russian player, Daniil Medvedev, is pretty clear about the matter. When a reporter asked Daniil about how fellow Russian didn’t want to talk about this matter, he seemed quite clear with his stance. As per the tennis professional himself, he doesn’t know if it will make people happy or not, but he is open to answering any questions that come his way.
World No. 3 said he is not interested in forcing others to say their opinions and that the war itself is a saying. As for Daniil, he is against the war, and the same statement was made by him when the war had initially begun. He said, “I feel like I can answer. I don’t know, yeah, if everyone will be happy with my answers or not. Yeah, I feel like I can answer everything.”
‘’I cannot talk for other players because I have always lived like this. I don’t like to force others to say anything. If anyone doesn’t want to raise his voice, that’s his position. Mine, I always said the same. I am for peace,’” he concluded.
Keep exploring – Aryna Sabalenka gives a FIRM warning to the Wimbledon press about not discussing the Ukraine war following her outburst at the French Open
Aryna Sablenka is not ready to talk about war, unlike Daniil Medvedev
In a recent turn of events, Aryna gave a stern warning to the Wimbledon press about asking her questions about the war and requested that they respect her decision on this matter. She further stated that the player conference was not about politics and that she would only discuss topics related to tennis. As per the Russian tennis prodigy herself, these questions make her uncomfortable, and a tennis press conference isn’t the right place to discuss political agendas.
She sternly said to the reporters, “I’m not going to talk about politics. I’m here to talk about tennis only. Please respect that. If you have any kind of political questions, you can ask the WTA or the tournament. They can send you the transcript of my answers from the previous tournaments.”
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