ASHEVIL, North Carolina – The attempt to return to Ukraine was short and Diana Yastremska and her four teammates were preparing to pose for their last official photo of this Billy Jean King Cup qualifier.
The blue-and-yellow ribbon representing Ukraine, which was painted on the special court tennis court, was no longer visible, obscured by red, white and blue ribbons that fell to the ground as part of the Americans’ celebration of their 3-2 victory on Saturday. in the evening.
The Ukrainians, with some help from the captain of the United States team, Katie Rinaldi, cleared some of the streamers. But when another official began removing them completely, Yastremska insisted they stay with the tape.
“They were in the colors of the United States and I wanted to leave that close to the colors of Ukraine,” she said in an interview. “Because I think this is a good sign of the support we have received here and a sign of peace. I wanted him to stay. “
It was a week in Asheville: symbolic gestures were more indelible than the results, and the usual rules of participation were rewritten in an attempt to blunt the edges of the national team’s competition.
“It was hard not to cry,” said Billy Jean King, 78, the American, who once competed in what used to be the Fed Cup long before it was renamed in 2020. She visited both teams. on Friday shortly before the game begins. “I only hope that the Ukrainians had a moment of escape from escapism.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, officials at the United States Tennis Association have proposed postponing the match from the qualifying round. The Ukrainians objected, but when it came time to book hotels in Asheville, they admitted that they no longer had money for the usual expenses for visiting the team.
“We said, ‘No problem, we’ll cover all your local expenses,'” said Stacy Alastair, chief executive of professional tennis at USTA, which also provided support to the delegation. “With the war, what is happening is so horrifying. What can anyone do? But we can all do small things, and what we can do is provide a platform for Ukrainians to demonstrate that they are strong and fighting and will not give up.
The posters around this town in the Blue Ridge Mountains did not say “USA vs. Ukraine.” They read “The United States is hosting Ukraine.” Information on how to donate to the Crisis Relief Fund in Ukraine was flashing as the dashboard was replaced, and about $ 225,000 was raised in connection with the matches. The American applause team supported individual players instead of chanting “Go USA!”
“We were just trying to find the right tone and balance,” Alastair said.
Ukrainian players, all of whom still have family members in the country where the fighting is taking place, think the job is done right: from an informal dinner for teams at Asheville Restaurant on Tuesday night to an exciting a cappella performance of Ukraine’s national anthem. Julia Kashirets, who left the members of both teams in tears minutes before the start of the matches.
Julia Kashirets sang the Ukrainian national anthem in qualifying for the Billy Jean King Cup on Saturday. Credit … Ikeen Howard / Getty Images
“We came here to play not against the United States, but with the United States for Ukraine, and that’s what I thought,” said Katarina Zavatska.
This is partly due to the numerous fans with Ukrainian ties and flags. 15-year-old Kristina Dyakiv from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach on Long Island travels to Asheville with her Ukrainian-born parents. Julia Sherod, a former leading Ukrainian teenage toy who now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, drove two hours in a short time.
“Every small victory is important in every region for Ukraine at the moment,” said Sherod, 35, who is also from Julia. “In the big picture, a tennis match isn’t a big deal, but it still means a lot.”
In this supportive atmosphere, Ukrainians have almost coped with the disorder. After falling behind 0-2 on Friday, they won both singles matches on Saturday in consecutive sets. Jastremska, a former top 25 player who now ranks 93rd in the WTA Tour, often beat Jessica Pegula at number 14. More surprisingly, the 201st Zavatska defeated Shelby Rodgers No. 46.
This meant that the final doubles match would be decisive, and Pegula and Asiya Muhammad, who debuted for the King’s Cup, won 7-6 (5), 6-3 over Yastremska and Lyudmila Kichenok.
“We really felt that fighting spirit of Ukraine all day,” Rodgers said. “It was really special to see, but it’s really hard to resist. I’m so proud of my team that it focused on having nerves of steel. “
Asia Mohammed, left, celebrates with Jessica Pegula after winning the final doubles match that qualifies the US team for the Billy Jean King Cup Finals. Credit … Susan Mullen / USA Today Sports, via Reuters
The first set of the doubles match was reduced to very little. After Mohammed served at 5-6, 30-30, the Americans had to fight to win the longest and most spectacular race in the match, and at 5-5 in the tiebreak, Kichenok’s full pass hit the very top of the ribbon.
“She wanted to take a little risk,” Yastremska said, making a small space between her right thumb and forefinger. “That’s right, online!”
The victory qualified the Americans for the King’s Cup finals with 12 teams in November, but the Ukrainians were not necessarily eliminated. A wild card slot is available and, depending on which nation is chosen to host the finals, it may be available for Ukraine.
A full-fledged Ukrainian team can be great: № 25 Elina Svitolina and № 53 Marta Kostyuk, the two highest-ranked singles players in the country, missed this match due to injuries and personal problems.
“I don’t want to be arrogant, but maybe we deserve it,” Zavatska said.
Russia won the King’s Cup last year before being eliminated from the race this year due to the invasion. Olga Savchuk, the captain of the Ukrainian team in Asheville, believes that tennis should take the next step and ban Russian players and individual events, something Wimbledon is considering.
“Why does someone who works at McDonald’s in Russia lose his job due to sanctions and tennis players are exceptions?” Savchuk said.
Zavatskaya, 22, who is based in southern France, believes Russians should take responsibility and “also feel uncomfortable while people and children die in Ukraine.” She said some Russian and Belarusian players had told her that the news of the atrocities coming from Ukraine was “fake”.
The guilt that some of the players felt in the first month that they were safe, while other Ukrainians were in such great danger, was replaced by the belief that they could be sports ambassadors.
“Since people watch us at home on TV, you want to take a few hours to enjoy tennis and see that some Ukrainian girls are also fighting for the country,” Yastremska said.
Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska celebrated her victory over the United States’ Shelby Rodgers on Saturday, tying the game 2-2. , through Reuters
The Auschwitz arena in scale and design reminded Savchuk and Yastremskaya of where the Ukrainian team plays home games in Kharkov, which has been hit hard by Russian bombing.
Savchuk, now based in London, was born and raised in Donetsk in the disputed Donbass region, and her father remains in Donetsk. “He decided to stay because it is home,” said Savchuk, who said her relatives had spent long periods in bomb shelters.
Kichenok fled the country after the war began, and it took her 31 hours to travel from Kyiv to Moldova with her parents. Her twin, Nadia, also part of the Ukrainian team, left Kyiv just before the Russian invasion, traveling to California with her husband.
“It was two days of hell for me until they got to safety,” Nadia told her family. “I had constant panic attacks. I’ve never experienced anything like this, for 40 minutes your body trembles and you don’t know what to do except take a deep breath.
The father of the Kitchenox family, 64, has since returned to Ukraine and tried to volunteer for the army, despite exceeding the age limit.
“They told him, ‘Grandpa, come home,'” Nadia Kichenok said. “We have too many people here. We will call you when we need you. ”
The 21-year-old Yastremska fled Odessa, her hometown, along with her 15-year-old sister Ivanna, to Romania after saying goodbye to her parents on the Ukrainian side of the Danube. The sisters have been touring together for nearly two months, while their parents remain in Odessa, where one of their tasks is to organize aid through the Yastremska Charitable Foundation.
Unable to return home, the Yastremska sisters are left without a fixed training base, but will head to Madrid to prepare for the glue season. The Kichenok twins will travel to Stuttgart, Germany, for a tournament, and Zavatska will return to Cannes, France, where she shares her small apartment with her mother and other relatives who have fled Ukraine.
After a week together and the last night of karaoke with the Americans on Saturday, the Ukrainians will move forward, but in the hope that Asheville and the world will not move forward too quickly.
“I don’t want people to get used to this pain we are experiencing,” said Nadia Kichenok. “We do not want people to feel sorry for us. We want them to stay strong with us, fighting for freedom and humanity. “
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