Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka claims she is “still feeling hate” from Ukrainian colleagues on the WTA Tour. In the last few months, there has been a lot of talk about the reported locker room tension between Ukrainian and Belarusian/Russian players.
In March, Sabalenka said she “has never faced this much hate in the locker room.” During her pre-tournament press conference in Rome on Tuesday, Sabalenka was asked whether anything changed in regard to that.
Sabalenka: They still hate us
“Well, it’s a tough question because everything, I want to say, you can play around it.
It’s tough to say. What exactly you mean ‘changed’? The ones who was hating us before, I don’t know, our country, for where we’re from, they still hate us. This didn’t change and I don’t think it’s going to change because of the situation.
I’m happy that we are allowed playing, that WTA doing everything they can to kind of handle this situation as good as they can. Yeah, that’s it. The only thing change for myself, not like I stop thinking about that, I just start focusing on myself and understand that I’ve done nothing bad to Ukrainians, that is not my fault, not the fault of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
We are just an athlete who could do what they can and who play sport. This is the only thing what help me to stay focus and just to play tennis,” Sabalenka said, per Tennis-Infinity. In March, Sabalenka also said that she used to blame herself after hearing some critical comments – but it all changed after she realized that she “did nothing bad against the Ukrainian people.” Also, Sabalenka has said multiple times over the last 15 months that she is “peace for all over the world.” However, the issue for Sabalenka is that Ukrainian players are not really buying that phrase.
