With ranking number 1, two Grand Slam tennis tournament titles and an Olympic gold medal, Victoria Azarenka is one of the most famous Belarusian female athletes of the last decade.
But despite reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-final in more than four years at the United States Open this week, Azarenka is an afterthought at home, in a country normally in love with the sport but currently enraptured by the mass protests against Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the autocratic president often known as “the last dictator of Europe”.
Lukashenko, in office since 1994, has clung to power and brutally represses demonstrations in the weeks following his landslide victory in the 9 August elections. Lukashenko said he won 80% of the vote, but many Western governments called the election a farce.
At the US Open, where five Belarusian women and one man won at least one game in major singles draws, unrest became a topic of repeated, if interrupted conversation.
With a few exceptions, players have largely resisted the substance of what is happening in Belarus, with many refusing to say directly whether they support Lukashenko or his opposition.
But they said they think their run to the first major tennis tournament after the coronavirus pandemic was a footnote at home, despite state media usually closely following the performance of Belarusian athletes and Lukashenko often an active promoter. of athletics and fitness. (While he downplayed the coronavirus threat earlier this year, Lukashenko promoted hockey, vodka, saunas, and farm work as potential cures.)
Belarus has long had a connection to tennis, with a handful of consistently competitive players since the 1990s as part of the influx of Eastern Europeans into the sport, especially on the women’s side of the game.
Yet Olga Govortsova, who reached the second round, said: “Sport is not important right now.”
Govortsova lives and trains mainly in Sunrise, Florida, but has remained in close contact with her family in Belarus and said she is moving away from the current turmoil.
“But they see a lot of people going out to protest, and sometimes it’s scary to leave the house,” Govortsova said. “It’s crazy for Belarus.”
Aryna Sabalenka, who was seeded fifth in singles but lost in the second round to Azarenka, said she was concerned for her family’s safety after arriving in the United States to play in several tournaments. During her first tournament here in Lexington, Ky., A restless Sabalenka “couldn’t sleep,” becoming increasingly frantic as she waited for her mother to respond to her message.
“I was really worried about her and she didn’t answer me,” Sabalenka said. “I forgot the internet wasn’t working and I called her and as soon as I heard her voice I felt a little better and could sleep.” He added that it has been difficult for several weeks, but that “hopefully everything will be calm”.
Both Govortsova and Sabalenka posted a meme titled “Belarusians Lives Matter” on Instagram last month. Sabalenka included a caption that read: “I cannot consider cruelty to helpless people; please stop the violence. “
The most politically outspoken Belarusian player was the youngest: Vera Lapko, 21, participated in a protest in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, before reaching the second round of the US Open.
“There were a lot of people,” Lapko said. “They were all peaceful. They were all happy to be able to show their opinions, show their emotions, about everything that is happening right now. It was really nice to be there next to them. “
Had she won another round in New York, Lapko would have faced another Belarusian, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, in the third round. After his first round match, Sasnovich immediately said “no comment” when the topic of Belarus was addressed.
Sasnovich, who along with Sabalenka led Belarus to the 2017 Fed Cup final against the United States, spoke about the pep talks she and her teammates had received from Lukashenko ahead of the matches, which took place in Minsk.
“He said ‘Come on girls, you can do it, Belarus is better than America,'” Sasnovich said in a 2018 interview.
Belarus lost the final by a hair’s breadth and Lukashenko expressed his disappointment by praising the “spirit” of the team.
“We men are nothing: we play very badly in tennis, football and hockey. Therefore, all hope fell on the shoulders of these delicate girls, “said Lukashenko.” We can only say that they played very well, but they could have won. “
In 2010 Lukashenko participated in an exhibition in Minsk between Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki and enthusiastically accepted Azarenka’s invitation to take the field and play.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2017, Azarenka, who won a gold medal in the mixed doubles at the 2012 London Olympics, said she was once invited to meet Lukashenko and ended up talking about tennis with him for “seven hours straight”.
“My mother thought I was, I don’t know, kidnapped,” Azarenka joked then.
Azarenka’s tone on Belarus and Lukashenko has been considerably more serious and hesitant this year, calling it a “very difficult subject to talk about”.
“It breaks my heart to see what’s going on, because not being able to be there and understand the whole situation is really sad,” Azarenka said last month. “It’s really sad and it’s really hard to talk about it. But I just hope all the violence ends immediately, it really does, because it’s really heartbreaking. I can’t even speak without tears in my eyes when I think about it. “
After beating Sabalenka last week, Azarenka said he hoped people in Belarus were watching.
“Obviously what is happening in Belarus is very close to my heart,” he said. “At this point, what will you do? I feel that sport has always been a party in our country “.
“There hasn’t been any sport for a long time,” he added. “Having two Belarusian women playing on the bigger stages, I think it’s really important. I hope people enjoyed our games and will continue to watch. “
