In 1945 George Orwell wrote that serious sport was “war minus the shooting”.
This year at Wimbledon serious tennis arrived with war and with shooting. Every day the war came up. It has made it a strange two weeks of sport and Ukraine and animosities arising from the war have reached deep into the heart of the tournament and spilled into the stands and onto the court.
The effect has been to sometimes make the championship appear utterly trivial and irrelevant and at other times, when Elina Svitolina speaks about it and refuses to shake the hands of Russian and Belarusian players, it becomes the most important and vital thing happening.
One thing that has remained consistent throughout has been the uneasy blending of the war with the entertainment and jollity of the event, its jarring effect and the reactions it has drawn from some of the players, the Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians.
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Sometimes too, it seems as if the events in Ukraine have also become part of the entertainment, a sombre, theatrical add on, where the emotions, the strain and the tears are all very real.
Earlier this week Ukraine’s Svitolina played against Victoria Azarenka from Belarus. The BBC, in flagging the match, called it the battle of the mums as both players have recently had children. What they deliberately ignored was the most obvious rivalry, the tension between them because of where they come from.
For some players like Svitolina, the destruction of her country has become a motivational tool and a relentless driver. The 28-year-old has made the tournament a deeply personal journey and her contribution to the Ukraine struggle rings as sincere as the soldiers fighting on the front line. It has infused her with spirit and provided her with a cause to win that goes far beyond having the title of Grand Slam champion beside her name.
On Tuesday after she had earned one of the biggest wins of her career, defeating Iga Świątek, the world number one and top seed, to reach the semi-finals, she spoke about how she was feeling.
“I think war made me stronger,” she said. “I know that lots of people back in Ukraine are watching. Mentally I don’t take difficult situations as like a disaster, you know. There are worse things in life.”
The questions went on to dig a little deeper. There are soldiers in your homeland fighting, what are your thoughts about those men and women, she was asked.
“It’s really unbelievable what they are doing for our country. I can’t thank [them] enough for their bravery, for what they are going through. It really takes a lot to go to fight for your country. All Ukrainians. We are here to help them to win this war.”
Wimbledon reluctantly allowed the Russian and Belarusian players to compete this year after suffering heavy fines last year for enforcing a ban on both nationalities. Their reversal came after what they described as “a strong and very disappointing reaction from some governing bodies in tennis to the position taken by the All England Club”.
The Russian and Belarusian players must compete as “neutral” athletes and comply with conditions, which include the prohibition of expressions of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in various forms, and the prohibition of receiving funding from the Russian and/or Belarusian states (including sponsorship from companies operated or controlled by the states) in relation to their participation.
Azarenka is known to have previously had a friendly relationship with Belarus’s authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko. He further queered the pitch when he celebrated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka’s Australian Open victory in January. More recently he said that people knew which country she came from even if she was playing under a neutral flag.
“I’m pretty sure that it’s not helping,” Sabalenka said when asked about Lukashenko’s comments. “I don’t know what to say because he can comment [on] my game. He can comment whatever he wants to.”
It came up again at the French Open and Sabalenka was again asked about the man she once called a friend and who boasted some years ago that he taught her how to play tennis.
“I don’t support war, meaning I don’t support Alexander Lukashenko right now,” she said.
Russian players have also been affected. Andrey Rublev, who was beaten by Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final, appeared bemused that the crowd had taken to him during the match.
“Today, as well. Is like I was saying, to be from the country where I am, to have this support, it’s special. I don’t know, I feel sometimes I don’t deserve it,” said the 25-year-old.
After Sabalenka beat America’s Madison Keys, she too spoke of perceptions and said on court she felt the crowd wanted Keys to win.
“I kind of expected them to support her more than me,” she said.
Other Ukrainian tennis players like 36-year-old Sergiy Stakhovsky have also reacted to the crisis. A former world number 31 who is best known for his upset win over Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2013 has joined the Ukraine army, as has 47-year-old Andrei Medvedev, the 1999 French Open finalist and Alexandr Dolgopolov, a former top 15 player.
All announced that they were joining the fight against Russia on the ground.
On the face of it, Svitolina’s response this week to the bombing of cities, the killing of her nation’s civilians and her use of Wimbledon as a bulwark could not have been more measured.
