Tsurenko wins all-Ukraine match and backs Wimbledon ban for Russians

The Ukrainian tennis player Lesia Tsurenko said she backs Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian players from this year’s tournament after she was met with “silence” on the invasion of her home country by people she considered friends.

Tsurenko progressed to the third round of the women’s draw after recovering to beat her compatriot Anhelina Kalinina 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in an emotional contest on Wednesday afternoon. Wearing a yellow and blue ribbon, in a break with the tournament’s longstanding all-white rules, the pair were cheered on by a crowd waving flags reading: “We stand with Ukraine.”

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Speaking after the match, the 33-year-old said she agreed with the ban. “It’s just a step,” she said. “[But] it’s a good step to show that that’s what we all have to do. I am Ukrainian. There is no other opinion in my head.”

Tsurenko said that in other circumstances she might have supported the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian players in the competition. “I would be the first one to say that, no, you should not ban them. But I have heard only from one Belarusian player and from one Russian player, who talked to me personally and told me: ‘I’m against the war.’

“I have heard one Belarusian and one Russian player. I did not hear anything from any other player,” Tsurenko said, as her voice began to be affected by her emotions. “So for me, the silence means … I mean, it’s not good when … I don’t know. I thought I had a lot of friends on tour, especially from Russians and Belarusians.”

Tsurenko revealed that as a child she had been forced to flee her home in Georgia because of the Russian invasion of the country in 1993. Speaking of the “28 years” her