Russia’s Andrey Rublev has reiterated his calls for peace following his opening win at the Citi Open.
Rublev was one of the first Russian players to call for peace back in February in the wake of Russia’s military attack on neighbouring Ukraine which has since resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. Since then he has reiterated these views during a fascinating hour-long video documentary with Russian vlogger Vitya Kravchenko, as well as fellow player Daria Kasatkina who publically came out as gay in the video.
Rublev says a united tennis front could show that it is possible for sports and politics not to mix. As a result of the Ukraine war, Russian and Belarusian players were banned from playing at this year’s Wimbledon Championships, as well as LTA events in Britain. However, they are allowed to participate on the ATP, WTA and ITF Tour’s but as neutral athletes.
“Of course I think politics were always in sport. Everybody knows this,” Rublev said following his 6-4, 6-2, win over Jack Draper. “But I do believe that by being united and doing good things for the peace, tennis can be, in general, if tennis will be example of it, maybe other sports will follow, and in general, maybe one day sport can be without politics.
“Obviously at least I believe that tennis can be without politics, because tennis is something that is independent. I think it’s one of not many sports that’s independent from the rest of the sports.”
The 24-year-old adds that the sport can achieve this due to its international reach and inclusivity. Both the ATP and WTA have previously stated that players should be allowed to play any tournament solely based on their merit and not discriminated against due to their nationality. Wimbledon’s decision to ban players was made following advice issued by the government amid fears the event could be used as propaganda by the Russian regime.
“We have players from everywhere. We play every country,” Rublev continued. “There is not one place that we are performing. We are travelling all around the world.
“I think tennis has a good chance to be outside of politics, because, yeah, we have all the nations. We have boys and girls, so many, all the continents, so many countries, so many tournaments per year, and I think then it depends already of the persons who works in ATP, WTA, also the players, because in the end you have to start from yourself.”
As for the aftermath of his interview with Kravchenko, Rublev said he was surprised by the amount of positive reaction it received. During one segment, he revealed that he put forward an idea to play at Wimbledon in the mixed doubles with Ukrainian players to show that there was no war in tennis. Although both he and Kasatkina received some criticism back in their native Russia, especially concerning the potential idea of switching nationalities.
“I think the video that we made was super positive, that, I don’t know, almost 90 or even more percent of the people was writing only positive, really good things, that me, I didn’t even expect,” he said.
“The experience was fun, because I think now, I mean, I don’t know, because I’m still quite young and I don’t know the history of all the earth, but at least at my age, I think it’s one of the toughest now time, and I think it’s important to use the platform, especially the tennis platform that, for the good things, that is, how it’s important to take care of each other, how it’s important to have a peace all around the world.”
