Navratilova, who was born in 1956 within the Czechoslovak capital of Prague, remembers taking part in a Russian in a junior event there not lengthy after the Soviet Union and different Warsaw Pact international locations invaded in 1968 to suppress a democratic motion.
“I do know it’s emotionally so tough,” she mentioned. “I used to be 13, nearly 14. I wished to beat this junior, and, in reality, after I shook her hand after I did, I mentioned, ‘See, your tanks can’t beat us!’ So, I get that. You’re feeling like you’re taking part in on your nation, and it hurts! And I knew she had nothing to do with it, however I nonetheless took it personally. So, I get the place Kostyuk is coming from, how a lot it hurts, however I don’t assume you may punish folks to that stage.”
Medvedev, who has been based mostly in southern France or Monte Carlo since his early teenagers, mentioned that in his view, “tennis is a really particular person sport.”
He mentioned that as long as he had the possibility, “I’m going to be there to attempt to play for the followers, play for different folks, for myself additionally, after all.”
However although each the lads’s and girls’s excursions have reiterated their help for the present strategy, Medvedev is aware of there aren’t any ensures. Although he has by no means performed his most interesting tennis within the desert warmth of Indian Wells, one additionally has to marvel how a lot the uncertainty and the conflict are impacting his frame of mind or how a lot it might need impacted his tennis towards Monfils on Monday, as Medvedev’s exact sport collapsed within the ultimate set amid a flurry of double faults and uncharacteristic errors.
“Let’s see how the state of affairs evolves,” he mentioned of allowing Russian athletes to compete.
Subsequent cease: the Miami Open, the place the lads’s major draw begins March 23 and the place, with Djokovic nonetheless not anticipated to play due to the journey ban, Medvedev can reclaim the No. 1 rating by reaching the semifinals.
However that, at this stage, just isn’t the largest of his issues.
