When foreign sports journalists run out of topics for articles, they remind themselves that there are Russian and Belarusian athletes in the world who can be criticized to the bottom of their hearts. The reasons why they are wanted are very different and are not necessarily related to the current political situation. Take, for example, the words of the representative of the French edition of L’Equipe Vincent Cognier. The journalist could not think of anything better than to blame Daniil Medvedev for disrupting the Roland Garros final with the participation of Carlos Alcaras and Novak Djokovic.
The idea of a journalist, in general, is understandable. In his opinion, Medvedev recently won too many points and received second place at Roland Garros, Alcaras and Djokovic, even because of this, finished in the middle of the grid. But who stopped Djokovic from performing better during the clay court season? A question without an answer.
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“If you love detective novels, surely you go crazy for those red herrings that a writer likes to describe before solving a riddle. In his genre, Daniil Medvedev showed himself very well, winning the Rome Masters. By beating Holger Rune, he led many observers (including me) to believe that he had finally overcome the pitfalls of clay and his disgust for this surface. Result: Elimination in the first round of the French Open by Thiago Wild (172nd in the world), who was eliminated four days later by Yoshihito Nishioka. Ridiculous situation, you will agree. Taking second place in the world ranking after his title, he was not far ahead of Novak Djokovic in it, but he deprived the tournament of the final that everyone was waiting for: between the Serb and Carlos Alcaras. Of course, they will play each other, but in the semifinals. Too bad… Thanks, Daniel. Good job,” Konye writes in a post on the publication’s website.
“Immediately the evil Medvedev appeared, who, in his bunker, in the meanest way, calculates how it would be possible to deprive the civilized world of as many beautiful finals as possible,” commented the “Championship” user under the nickname roman74. .
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And that’s nothing. But British journalist Mike Dixon criticized Arina Sobolenko’s decision to hold a closed-door press conference after reaching the fourth round of Roland Garros. Recall that Sobolenko refused to hold a full-fledged press conference after winning the third round match. Later, the athlete herself said that she did not feel safe speaking to reporters and she decided to protect herself from them by holding a closed-door press conference.
“This is absurd,” commented on the decision of Arina Dixon, whose words are quoted by Sport.pl. “The craziest week of the French Open in my memory continues. Geopolitics, boos, now the second racket in the world is boycotting the press conference, ”added the journalist on his page on social networks.
Arina Sobolenko at Roland Garros 2023
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images
And the Polish journalist Dominik Senkowski, who interviewed the Russian tennis player Kamilla Rakhimova, spoke about the athlete’s statements. In particular, Rakhimova asked not to mix politics with sports, saying that unwillingness to shake hands after matches is the choice of Ukrainian tennis players.
“While listening to Rakhimova’s statements, I had the impression that she was talking to Arina Sobolenko. The Belarusian is the biggest “enemy” of the Ukrainians today because of the position she occupies in women’s tennis. It is possible that she will soon become the new leader of the WTA ranking. Sobolenko, instead of sympathizing with her Ukrainian colleagues, often speaks of the hatred she has to face because of her nationality. All this recently caused the cancellation of two of her press conferences in the French capital. Sobolenko’s meeting with Elina Svitolina in the Roland Garros quarterfinals is another “political” duel at this year’s Paris tournament. Journalists based in the French capital assume that after such a match, the Belarusian will not want to meet with the media in order not to answer uncomfortable questions,” Sienkovski wrote on Sport.pl.
As a result, the Polish journalist was mistaken. Sobolenko not only held a press conference after reaching the semifinals of Roland Garros 2023, but also opened it.
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In this context, the words of the British journalist Michael Day, who published an author’s column in Inews, seem like a true voice of reason. The journalist was outraged by the pressure that his teammates exerted on the Russian and Belarusian players (in particular, on Sobolenko) during Roland Garros 2023 due to the situation in Ukraine. The column was published under the headline “Tennis players from Russia and Belarus are not to blame, stop treating them like criminals.”
“The idiocy continued in the post-match press conferences. Journalists at every opportunity asked Sobolenko about the situation in Ukraine. Sobolenko’s media bullying at the French Open is not only pointless and disgusting, it just doesn’t make any sense. If the Lukashenka regime is as corrupt as the press claims, why are journalists trying to force Sobolenka to put his family at risk? Let the lovely and talented Sobolenko mind her own business,” Day wrote.
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