Czechmate, Russia: Tennis may no longer be able to avoid choosing sides

WATCH: Elina Svitolina beat Victoria Azarenka in the first round in Washington, D.C., where Azarenka gave her a thumbs-up to acknowledge the end of the match.

"WTA rules state that all players must be allowed to compete on the WTA based solely on merit, without discrimination. We will continue to review the situation as we factor important considerations around these complex geopolitical issues.” From a statement issued recently by the WTA, in response to WTA pros from Russia and Belarus being barred from entering the Czech Republic due to the continuing unprovoked war on Ukraine by Russia with support from Belarus.

If you’re familiar with corporate double-speak, you know that “We will continue to review the situation” really means: “We are between a rock and a hard place and don’t know what to do next.” That’s because the circumstances here are very different from those surrounding Wimbledon in 2022, when excluding certain players enabled the WTA and ATP to retaliate by denying the tournament rankings points—a move that forced the All-England Club to re-think and drop its boycott for this year.

This time, it is the government of a democratic nation—not a private tennis club—that is choosing to ban athletes from two autocracies that are committing wholesale war crimes (Russia) or slavishly enabling them (Belarus, whose leader is a Vladimir Putin puppet). It’s odd to call the situation in Ukraine a “complex geopolitical issue,” but what are the ATP and WTA going to do, pull tournaments from nations that forbid entry to Russians and Belarusians?

It’s not a frivolous question.

Russia has been destabilizing the world order, and its relations with the western democracies continue to degenerate. Consequently, barring entry for anyone who is a de facto, high-profile representative of either aggressor nation will move ever closer to being on the table as yet another western sanction.

The idea of barring members of any given nation wholesale may seem far-fetched, but think back to how global leaders reacted to the pandemic, and the strict enforcement of travel bans. The veneer of normalcy that the tennis agencies have been clinging to is a crumbling luxury.

A few weeks ago, multiple-time Grand Slam finalist Vera Zvonareva, a Russian, was denied entry to Poland, where she hoped to compete in the WTA event. The originally unnamed Russian who was turned away more recently by Czech police is former French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who identified herself and wrote on Instagram: “I will not be able to participate in Prague next week. ... I [will] continue my preparation on hard courts for US Series.”

The USTA does not anticipate a blanket travel ban for the upcoming tournament. Nor would the organization speculate on what might happen if and when a boycott did occur, but in a statement to Tennis.com, a senior USTA official wrote that while allowed once again to compete as neutrals, “This year, a condition of participation will also be that Russian and Belarusian players will not be allowed to wear any type of clothing or make any type of statements that support the invasion of Ukraine or the Russian and Belarusian governments.”

Ironically, Pavlyuchenkova was one of the first—and still very few—Russians or Belarusians, to flat out condemn the war instead of offering platitudes about “world peace.” She did it in a post on the social media platform now called X, once called Twitter, since deleted. The other Russians who were entered in the Prague Open but denied entry to the country included Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus and Russians Diana Shnaider, Polina Kudermetova and Erika Andreeva.

The words “mission creep” comes to mind, and the WTA seems totally unprepared to deal with the phenomenon.

As Wimbledon 2022 demonstrated, tennis is a sport of countless high-performing individuals. It can proceed without any number of qualified competitors, as have other sports that chose to ban the players in question. The WTA and ATP canceled tour events in Russia at the beginning of the invasion, why not put the onus on Russia and Belarus to put on events for their own players? That may sound callous, but not as much as disregarding the plight of the Ukrainian players driven from their homes and suffering horrific stress because of the war.

The tide of revulsion against Russia’s continuing escalations has triggered other dramatic actions, including some athletic entities breaking their own rules out of sympathy for the plight of Ukraine.

Last week, Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan was almost immediately guaranteed a place in the upcoming Olympic Games after having been disqualified from fencing’s World Cup for refusing to shake hands after defeating a Russian opponent. The snub earned Kharlan a “black card” that would ordinarily result in a lengthy suspension, leaving her unable to compete at the Olympics.

The handshake is obligatory in Olympic fencing, so Kharlan’s punishment was technically appropriate. But further evaluation, including eyewitness reports that Russian loser Anna Smirnova taunted Kharlan and then lobbied for her disqualification led to a reversal. Kharlan was assured she would be welcome to compete in Paris in a letter from IOC President Thomas Bach, himself a former gold medalist in fencing.

The guarantee is important because Kharlan’s action is no different from those of Elina Svitolina or other Ukrainian players who protest the invasion by ignoring the handshake.

Bach’s letter to Kharlan said, in part:

“As a fellow fencer, it is impossible for me to imagine how you feel at this moment,” Bach wrote. “The war against your country, the suffering of the people in Ukraine, the uncertainty around your participation at the Fencing World Championships in Milan, the difficult inner conflicts you and many of your fellow Ukrainian athletes may have and then the events which unfolded yesterday -- all this is a roller coaster of emotions and feelings.

"It is admirable how you are managing this incredibly difficult situation, and I would like to express my full support to you.”

That’s a strikingly heartfelt, empathetic message, and it’s noteworthy that the leadership of the WTA has not shown anything like comparable compassion. It’s just one reason (small, but telling) that Ukrainian players have repeatedly criticized the WTA for a lack of meaningful support. At some point, the WTA’s bloodless determination to avoid choosing sides in the evolving global catastrophe may no longer be tenable.