Ukrainian tennis player Alexander Dolgopolov accused Roland Garros organizers of “lack of courage” for not preventing Russian and Belarusian tennis players from participating in the tournament, in an interview given on Monday to French broadcaster RTL.
The organizers of the Parisian tournament (which will take place from May 22 to June 5) assured last week that they would not close the door to Russian players, including world number 2 Daniil Medvedev, and Belarusians.
“They lack courage, they do not want to bear the possible consequences (of the presence of Russian tennis players). Frankly, it is not enough to say that we are against war. It is a war against our country, which kills our civilians,” he declared.
Dolgopolov, 33 years old and winner of three ATP tournaments, was very affected by the conflict in his country to think of Roland Garros: “It is no more important than the lives of thousands of people.”
The tennis player, who returned to his country to “defend” Ukraine, insisted that “tennis has a very cowardly position today”.
“Russia must be excluded from everything that the free world manages. To say today 'I am against war' is insufficient. Their athletes must condemn their government and recognize that these are mass murders,” he added.
“They're good guys, I know most of them. I'm sure they're against war, but if they take a neutral position, like 'I'm against war', it's like saying 'leave me, I live in my bubble, I don't want to get involved, I just want to play tennis'. This position is unacceptable.”
Last week, at a press conference, the director general of the French Tennis Federation (FFT), Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, recalled: “We impose strict neutrality on Russian and Belarusian players (...) We follow the principle of all sports ministries in the European Union and all the key countries around us.”
“An individual athlete is not punished if he is selected by his country... For the time being,” added FFT President Gilles Moretton.
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