“They left or turned away” A ‘disappointed’ Sergiy Stakhovsky recalls how Russians avoided him at the French Open
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Sergiy Stakhovsky
Sergiy Stakhovsky is a former Ukrainian professional tennis player. Stakhovsky turned professional in the year 2003 and played mostly at the Challenger level from 2005 to 2008. He achieved his career-best rankings in September 2010 when was ranked No.31 in singles by ATP and No. 33 in doubles in June 2011.
The former Ukrainian tennis star has won 4 career titles in his time and he has a win-loss record of 177-215 in the ATP World Tour, Grand Slam main draw matches and Davis cup. Stakhovsky was last featured in the qualifiers of the Australian Open when he lost in the first round against the American JJ Wolf after which he announced his retirement from professional tennis on January 14th, 2022.
Sergiy Stakhovsky recalls his time at the French Open, and how most of the Russia
After his retirement early in 2022, he returned to Kyiv at the start of the war to defend his country against the unwanted aggression of the Russian army. Like many Ukrainian athletes, he is also contributing to his motherland. Sergiy has recently made new statements about what he encountered as a tennis player after the war began.
The former world no. 31’s comments reported by The Team, “I met Russian players in Paris, I’m not going to name names, during Roland-Garros. Almost all of them left or turned their heads away when they saw me coming. I have known them all for a very long time. I have seen their careers develop. And I’m disappointed, to say the least. Rublev is perhaps the only player to have spoken publicly and said stop the war, from the first week.
“I have great admiration for Daria. She is a heroine in her own way. If there were more Russians like her, this war would never have started. I’m disappointed, to say the least. They are scared of their fate. They don’t want to go to jail but they are okay that the kids and women are dying. I would rather trade and go to jail for a couple of weeks or even a month if I can save a life by doing that,” he added.
Stakhovsky also praised Daria Kasatkina and Andrey Rublev for speaking out against the Russians. The two has recently conducted an interview with Russian Youtuber, Vitya Kravchenko where they opened up about many things which are considered as ‘taboo’ in Russia. Both of them also talked about giving up their Russian citizenship.
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