Navratilova, who was born in 1956 within the Czechoslovak capital of Prague, remembers enjoying 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 needed to beat this junior, and, actually, once 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 might be enjoying 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 possibly can punish folks to that degree.”
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 prospect, “I’m going to be there to attempt to play for the followers, play for different folks, for myself additionally, in fact.”
However although each the boys’s and girls’s excursions have reiterated their assist for the present method, Medvedev is aware of there are not 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 warfare are impacting his way of thinking or how a lot it may need impacted his tennis in opposition to Monfils on Monday, as Medvedev’s exact recreation collapsed within the ultimate set amid a flurry of double faults and uncharacteristic errors.
“Let’s see how the scenario evolves,” he mentioned of allowing Russian athletes to compete.
Subsequent cease: the Miami Open, the place the boys’s foremost 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, is just not the largest of his considerations.