The comments made by Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova against Russian Diana Shnaider raised the tension at a Roland Garros that has already been quite turbulent.
The two players faced each other in the third round in Paris, but the match began to be played out at Oliynykova’s press conference on Thursday, when the Ukrainian laid into the 22-year-old and her participation in a tennis exhibition in Russia: “It is the same as playing in Nazi Germany for Gestapo officials.”
After learning she would face the world No. 23, Oliynykova showed journalists photos on her phone of the Russian playing in a tournament sponsored by Gazprom, the Russian state gas giant. She also displayed screenshots of likes left by Shnaider on Russian pro-war propaganda posts.
“Gazprom is a company that is financing war crimes… I think it is the same as playing in Nazi Germany for Gestapo officials at a tournament organised by the company that built Auschwitz. There is no difference for me,” said Oliynykova, ranked 65th in the WTA rankings.
“My home, my city is being attacked with Gazprom’s money,” Oliynykova added on Saturday, after losing to the Russian 7-5 and 6-1 in a match that ended without a handshake at the net.
Shnaider defended herself when journalists put the questions to her in the Philippe Chatrier press room: “I travel all year and there are very few opportunities I have to play in front of my friends and family. I took the chance to play in front of my people and show good tennis.”
Shnaider dodged almost every question that went in that direction. She said she had no idea what Oliynykova had said beforehand and declined to make her position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine clear.
“She does not want to comment on the war, because if she gives her opinion it would be a huge scandal. She knows what she did is unacceptable,” said Oliynykova, who called for some form of sanction on tour: “Someone has to react. The tour cannot be this hypocritical.”
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Denys Oliynykova, the player’s father, was able to join her in Paris and witnessed his daughter’s best result at a Grand Slam. He is a volunteer soldier in active combat in the Ukrainian army. In a week his leave ends and he will have to return to the front.
Before the tournament began, Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk stunned a press conference by revealing that a Russian missile had struck very close to her parents’ home in Kyiv.
“If it had fallen 100 metres closer, I would probably have no mother or sister today,” she said, showing a photo on her phone of a building after the attack. “I am happy everyone is alive.”
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