CNN
 — 

Ukrainian tennis player Anhelina Kalinina refused to shake hands with Veronika Kudermetova, her Russian opponent, following the former’s victory in the semifinals of the Rome Masters in Italy on Friday.

Speaking to reporters after the match at Foro Italico, Rome, Kalinina said, “We didn’t shake hands because the girl is from Russia basically. It’s no secret why I didn’t shake, because this country actually attacks Ukraine.

“So yeah, this is sport, I understand, but it’s also kind of political thing. So, yeah, it has nothing personal. But in general, yes, it’s not acceptable.”

Kudermetova was asked about her relationship with Kalinina and the influence of “political overtones”, and responded, “I mean, here we’re athletes. We’re here, and we love what we do here. Doesn’t matter from which country you are. We’re athletes and that’s it. We are here to play tennis.”

Kalinina denied the idea that her opponent’s nationality influenced the topsy-turvy nature of the match, describing Kudermetova as “a top player, a very great player. It was about tennis.”

Kalinina, who came into the tournament ranked No.47 in the world compared to Kudermetova at No.12, won in three sets 7-5 5-7 6-2.

The 26-year-old Ukrainian was asked about her family, who are currently living in Kyiv, and revealed a bomb exploded near the tennis academy where her parents work. She also said her grandparents eventually moved away from Nova Kakhovka, her hometown, after an explosion near their house.

In her on-court interview after the match, Kalinina said, “For me it’s also really important for me to win every match, because you know, what Ukraine goes through, I just want to say that I really hope I give a tiny small light and maybe some positive emotions for my country.”

Kalinina will face either Elena Rybakina in Saturday’s final. Rybakina was born in Russia but has represented Kazakhstan since 2018.

CNN
 — 

Swedish tennis player Mikael Ymer was disqualified from the Lyon Open on Wednesday after smashing his racket against the base of the umpire’s chair.

The incident occurred after Ymer had pleaded with umpire Rogerio Santos to check a ball mark on the clay during his round of 16 match against France’s Arthur Fils.

Santos said he had seen the ball bouncing on the line and therefore wouldn’t check for a mark on the court – as umpires often do on clay – though Ymer was adamant the ball had gone out.

“I have never witnessed that a ref says, ‘I’m not going to go down and check the mark.’ It doesn’t happen. Why are you not checking the mark I’m giving to you?” Ymer said to Santos.

Fils then broke Ymer’s serve the following point to go 6-5 ahead, after which the world No. 53 smashed his racket twice into the umpire’s chair, breaking the racket head clean away from the handle on his second swipe.

A tournament official then told Ymer that he had been disqualified. The 24-year-old went over to congratulate Fils, who will face top seed Félix Auger Aliassime in the next round.

A similar incident involving German player Alexander Zverev occurred at the Mexican Open last year.

Zverev was handed a suspended eight-week ban and fined $25,000 for repeatedly hitting the umpire’s chair with his racket during a first-round doubles match.

At the time of the incident, he was ejected from the singles tournament, fined $40,000 and made to forfeit the $31,570 in prize money he had already accumulated, as well as all ATP Rankings points from the event.

CNN has contacted the ATP Tour regarding Ymer’s disqualification from the Lyon Open.

CNN
 — 

Tennis player Elina Svitolina called her opponent, Russian Daria Kasatkina, a “brave one” following the Ukrainian’s upset win on Sunday.

Svitolina, who previously said she would not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents out of respect for the men and women defending Ukraine, told reporters that she “acknowledged” Kasatkina after the match.

Kasatkina has been outspoken in her criticism of the war, describing it last year as a “nightmare,” according to the New York Times.

Last month, Kasatkina, Russia’s top-ranked female tennis player, also expressed her sympathy for Ukrainian tennis players who refuse to shake her hand after matches.

“Really thankful for her position that she took. She’s [a] really brave person to say it publicly, that not so many players did,” Svitolina said, after advancing to the quarterfinals of the French Open.

“She’s a brave one.”

Instead of a hand shake, Kasatkina gave her opponent a thumbs up at the net after losing the match 6-4 7-6 (7-5). She later said she was disappointed to hear boos from some members of the crowd.

“Leaving Paris with a very bitter feeling. All this days, after every match I’ve played in Paris I always appreciate and thanked crowd for support and being there for the players,” Kasatkina tweeted Monday.

“But yesterday I was booed for just being respectful on my opponent’s position not to shake hands.

“Me and Elina showed respect to each other after a tough match but leaving the court like that was the worse part of yesterday. Be better, love each other. Don’t spread hate. Try to make this world better.”

Kasatkina, who last year announced she was gay and criticized Russia’s attitudes towards homosexuality, has maintained her stance against the war in Ukraine.

“The saddest part is the war still going on,” the 26-year-old said last month. “So of course, players from Ukraine have got a lot of reasons to not shake our hands. I accept it and it is how it is. It’s a very sad situation and I understand.”

Playing in her first major since the 2022 Australian Open and first since becoming a mother, Svitolina said she was just focused on recovery and preparing for her next match.

“Of course I would love to win here,” Svitolina said. “It will be the dream, but it’s always been in my career like step by step.

“I think this is the only right way to do, to not look too much into the future, because otherwise you lose your focus from the small things that brings you to win the matches.”

Svitolina will play Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the next round on Tuesday.

World No. 2 Sabalenka stopped participating in customary post-match press conferences at the tournament after saying she didn’t feel safe at a previous press conference where she was questioned about her country’s involvement in the war.

Sabalenka said in March that she struggled to understand the “hate” she encountered in the locker room amid strained relations between some players following the invasion of Ukraine – Belarus is being used as a key staging ground for Russia.

“About the war situation, I said it many, many times, nobody in this world – Russian athletes, Belarusian athletes – supports the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Normal people will never support it,” she said.

Russian and Belarusian players are currently still competing on the tours as neutral athletes without their flag or country displayed.

CNN
 — 

Monica Puig won more than 300 matches during her tennis career and the feeling afterwards was often the same: relief, excitement, and satisfaction that the weeks and months of sacrifice and preparation had paid off.

Today, exactly a year after shoulder issues forced her to retire aged 28, Puig is still able to revisit some of those winning emotions without picking up a tennis racket or stepping foot on a court.

She’s turned to running marathons – first in New York City, then in Boston and London on back-to-back weekends earlier this year and is already halfway towards her goal of completing all six of the world’s marathon majors by the end of 2024.

“Every time I cross the finish line of a marathon and I get a new personal best time, I get emotional, I’ve cried,” Puig tells CNN Sport.

“I’ve just felt in awe of what I’ve been doing because I could easily just be sitting on the couch crying and feeling sorry for myself. But I tried to channel all of that energy that I have towards whatever I had been feeling about my career into something more productive.”

Completing a marathon, Puig says, feels “very similar and very different” to winning a tennis match. With tennis, the stakes felt higher when rankings points, global recognition, and prize money were on the line.

But the sense of personal satisfaction she gets from running has endured, helping to ease the lingering pain of her retirement from tennis.

“It’s more about showing myself that I didn’t let myself fall into this big black hole of depression and sadness when I had to finish my career so early,” Puig adds.

“I was able to pick myself back up and find something else that motivates me to get out of bed every day, that motivates me to continue to be strong, fit, and have fun at the same time.”

Puig reached a career-high ranking of No. 27 in the world and won one WTA Tour title in 2014. Her crowning moment arrived two years later when she won Olympic gold in Rio – Puerto Rico’s first-ever gold medal at the Games.

As a tennis player, Puig always saw running as a form of punishment – never enjoyment. It became a means to clear her head when she was rehabbing from injuries and, over time, she started to increase the distance of her runs – three miles became five, five became eight, then eight became half and full marathons.

Now, Puig has also set her sights on competing in triathlons, as well as running the remaining marathon majors in Chicago, Berlin, and Tokyo. Her first half Ironman – a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run – is in Augusta, Georgia, in September, and she plans to race another back home in Puerto Rico next year.

An amateur runner and triathlete, it’s a sharp transition from her life as one of the best tennis players in the world, though Puig thinks her experience of the latter has benefited the former.

“You are competing against yourself,” she says of all three disciplines, “you are your biggest enemy or supporter out there. What you think can either push you or it can limit you.

“In tennis, I’m not going to say my mental fortitude was my strength because a lot of the time I didn’t know how to deal with negative thoughts, but I feel like everybody matures at their own time mentally.

“Doing the marathons and triathlon has really helped my mentality to grow and to develop this can-do attitude towards everything that I do. It’s also thanks to tennis that I have a certain discipline … All of that discipline has really helped me to stay in shape and stay true to my goals.”

Elbow surgery in 2019 followed by three shoulder surgeries in three years ultimately signaled the end to Puig’s tennis career. She played her first match since 2020 at the Madrid Open last year, but the shoulder problems persisted.

There were times, Puig says, that she couldn’t sleep on the affected side, such was the pain in her shoulder. Moreover, the mental toll of constant rehab and almost four years away from regularly competing on the tour was starting to mount.

“It felt like I was pushing a stone up a mountain and the stone kept squashing me as I kept getting further and further,” says Puig.

“I obviously believed that I could come back, I believed in myself enough. Last year, I had full intention of playing again competitively.

“But when I saw my surgeon after the last time I was on the court, he said, ‘Look, I have to be honest with you, your shoulder – it’s not doing well. And we can’t just keep opening up your shoulder to fix it every single time it goes wrong.”

Not ready to walk away from tennis entirely, Puig still hopes to play exhibition matches in the future. She returned to the practice court recently and had to temper expectations from fans, who interpreted footage posted on social media as the start of a competitive comeback.

But Puig has remained involved with the sport as a broadcaster, enabling her to engage with the game in a different way compared to her playing days.

“When I commentate or I’m watching matches, I’ve noticed that my understanding of the game has gotten a lot better,” she says. “I feel like I’m smarter and I can see things, I can notice things. I study the game a lot better than when I was playing.

“My understanding for tennis has grown and I wish that I was still playing so I could implement some of the things that I see and have that knowledge translate onto what I do on the court.”

Puig adds that she still misses tennis, particularly when she watches her contemporaries thrive at grand slams.

With her shoulder never going to be as it was prior to the surgeries, she’s come to accept her body’s limitations and is honing her swimming technique to withstand the rigors of Ironman-distance triathlons.

“I’ve learned to handle my shoulder in a different way and knowing that, if there is pain, then it’s okay to stop, it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to say that you’re not feeling 100%,” says Puig.

“Usually, when I was trying to come back last year, I would play through pain and that wasn’t necessarily something that felt very good. It was very challenging and involved a lot of tears.”

What she has instead developed over the past year is “a new life” and “a new way of doing things.”

“I want to continue to do this for my whole life; I see people well into their fifties, sixties, still doing triathlon and doing Ironman,” says Puig.

“That’s something that I want to continue to do … I don’t know how far I’ll get or anything like that, but the sky’s the limit.”