Arina Sobolenko: “We are athletes, not politicians”

Belarusian tennis player again criticized Wimbledon organizers for sanctions against Russians and Belarusians

Belarusian tennis player Arina Sobolenko, who ranks fifth in the WTA rankings, said that the removal of Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the Wimbledon tournament in 2022 “did not change anything.”

Sobolenko is currently in Australia and is preparing to compete in the WTA 500 tournament in Adelaide, which starts on January 2. The second racket of the competition will fight with Russian Lyudmila Samsonova or Chinese Zhang Shuai in the second round.

On the eve of the start, Sobolenko gave an interview to local media and the WTA press service.

“If I can win here, it will help a lot in the Australian Open. I will try my best because I need a few matches. I want to play a few matches before the Australian Open so that I can be in different situations on the court and feel confident in the tournament “Grand Slam”, – said Sobolenko.

She did not disregard last year’s political sanctions of the English Tennis Federation, which banned Russians and Belarusians from participating in Wimbledon and other tennis tournaments in the UK. For this, the ATP and WTA subjected the British to severe fines and threatened to completely deprive their tournaments of their rating status, if discrimination against Russian and Belarusian tennis players continues.

According to the best Belarusian tennis player, the decision of the organizers of Wimbledon to remove the Belarusian and Russian players from participation in last year’s tournament “changed nothing.”

Sobolenko, who plays in Adelaide this week ahead of the Australian Open, said politics and sport should not mix.

“I’m just very disappointed that sport is somehow dependent on politics. We are just athletes doing our sport. That’s all. We are not politicians. They banned us from Wimbledon, and what did that change? Nothing. Events continue to take their course, and this is the sad part of this situation. The problem is that we have to talk about it loudly… but why do we have to shout about it on every street corner? It won’t help at all.

I really hope that I will play at Wimbledon in 2023 just because of the fans in the stands of the courts to feel this atmosphere. But if we get banned again, I don’t care about Wimbledon’s decision. I miss people,” Sobolenko said in an interview with the Australian newspaper Melbourne’s Age.

Earlier, Arina Sobolenko showed on social networks what gifts for the New Year were presented to her by her lover, a former hockey player of the Belarusian national team, and now an assistant coach of the Ufa Salavat Yulaev, Konstantin Koltsov. Koltsov presented Sobolenko with jewelry from the French brand Van Cleef & Arpels, the Championship reported.

“Happy New Year! Thank you, the best person in my life. I know what the next gift will be, ”Sobolenko wrote on her social networks.