Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: "Stop the violence! Stop the war!"
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova , currently the best-ranked Russian in the WTA world rankings, tweeted that Russia should end the war in Ukraine.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Feb 28, 2022, 03:33 pm
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova currently ranks 14th in the world tennis rankings. This makes Pavlyuchenkova the best-ranked Russian in the WTA charts. The now 30-year-old reached the final at Roland Garros last year, but lost to Barbora Krejcikova. However, the sport is taking a back seat these days, especially for Ukrainian and Russian athletes. After Russia attacked her home country Ukraine, Elina Svitolina recently called on the tennis community to help her people.
Pavlyuchenkova in turn called for the end of the war in a tweet on Monday. Just like her compatriot Andrey Rublev had done in Dubai.
"I've been playing tennis since I was a kid," writes Pavlyuchenkova. "I have represented Russia all my life. This is my homeland and my country. But now I live in complete fear, as do my friends and family. But I am not afraid to make my position clear: I am against war and violence."
"Personal ambitions or political motives cannot justify violence," Pavlyuchenkova continued. "It not only jeopardizes our future, but also that of our children. I'm confused and I don't know how to help in this situation. I'm just an athlete playing tenis. I'm not a politician, not a public person, I have no experience in these matters. I can only publicly disagree with the decisions made and speak openly about them. Stop the violence, stop the war."