Sunday will mark the 41st anniversary of the landing of the Argentine army in the Malvinas War, which directly impacted the presence of tennis players from Albiceleste, while in the WTA there is crossfire due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The situation that exists in the changing rooms -especially in the women’s circuit, with the crossed statements between the Polish Every Swiatek and the ukrainian Marta Kostyuk on the one hand and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka on the other – refers at the time of the war between Russia and Ukraine to what happened long ago 41 years with the Malvinas war. Sunday will be a new anniversary of the Argentine landing on the islands and that historical event also changed the calendars of the Argentine players. None of them, for example, decided to play in the tournaments at Bournemouth (from April 19 to 25 on clay), Queen’s (from June 7 to 13 on grass) and Bristol (from June 14 to 20, also on grass). Even They didn’t go to Wimbledonbeyond the fact that it began on June 21, a week after the surrender of the Argentine troops.
Guillermo Vilas and José Luis Clerc were, at that time, no less than second and fifth in the world ranking, respectively. Even a handful of weeks before both had lost to the Swedish Wilander in the final (Vilas) and the semifinals (Clerc) at Roland Garros. And although of course the game of both had nothing to do on the grass with respect to brick dust, both were very powerful figures on the circuit. But they refused to play for the All England. “Out of respect for the Argentine soldiers,” Clerc says today.
“Nobody forced us, nobody told us that we did not have to play in Wimbledon or in the rest of the tournaments that were played at that time in Great Britain. But we feel that way. And that’s why we don’t travel, ”he recalls.
“Even I donated money for the soldiers. If it reached its destination? I don’t know… ”, she maintains with a resigned smile.
Clerc also recounts that “the relationship with the English tennis players was very good. There was no talk of the war. At that time Great Britain had players like Buster Mottram or Richard Lewis in the top 100. There was also John Lloyd, who was the husband of Chris Evert. We only talked about tennis with them”.
41 years passed. Two wars. And many differences.
