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      Daria Kasatkina’s Tumultuous and Triumphant Season

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      The tennis star has spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and come out as gay with her partner, the figure skater and fellow Russian Natalia Zabiiako. And she’s winning.FORT WORTH — As Daria Kasatkina’s match with the American teenager Coco Gauff took many a twist and turn on Thursday night, Kasatkina’s thoughts were hard to read: Her neutral, deeply focused expression gave little hint of the score until she had closed out her round-robin victory, 7-6 (6), 6-3, at the WTA Finals with a roar and a clenched fist.Kasatkina, a 25-year-old Russian who will face Caroline Garcia on Saturday for a place in the semifinals, is in the moment and back in the groove in her first appearance in this elite year-end event, reserved for the top eight women’s singles players and top eight doubles teams.But it has been a tumultuous, ultimately triumphant season for Kasatkina. In July, in an interview with the Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko, she came out as gay, making her relationship public with the former Olympic pairs figure skater Natalia Zabiiako. In that same interview, Kasatkina also became the first Russian tennis star to speak out in depth against the war with Ukraine.Both are risky moves in Russia, where the government led by President Vladimir V. Putin has enacted laws restricting dissent against the war and banned the portrayal of gay relationships in books, films and the media.Kasatkina, who called the war a “full-blown nightmare” and expressed empathy for Ukrainian players, has long trained in Spain with her coach, Carlos Martinez, and is now based in Dubai. She has not returned to Russia, where she still has family, since a visit to St. Petersburg in February, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Has this been her year of being brave?“Maybe yes,” she said in an interview in Fort Worth. “I was saying those things not to look brave but to give to the people my point of view and my feelings. So, if they see that this was brave, good, but it was not to look brave, completely not.”Some Ukrainian players, including Ukraine’s former Billie Jean King Cup captain Olga Savchuk, thanked Kasatkina personally.“At least she tried and did something and can live with a clean soul,” Savchuk said in a text message on Friday. “I can easily look in her face now when I meet her, because I know what she thinks.”Asked what the feedback had been like in Russia, Kasatkina demurred. “Let’s not talk about it,” she said.But she said that she had been touched by the level of support internationally for her decision to come out about her sexuality and to live openly with Zabiiako, a 2018 Olympian for Russia, who is with her and Martinez in Fort Worth.More on Women and Girls in SportsHawaii Sex Discrimination: A lawsuit alleging Title IX violations at a Hawaii high school could be a landmark stress test for the law.Abuse in Women’s Soccer: The publication of the Yates Report, detailing “systemic abuse” throughout the sport, is only the beginning.Pretty in Any Color: Women’s basketball players are styling themselves how they want, because they can. Their choices also can be lucrative.Title IX’s Racial Gaps: Because race has never been part of the law, Title IX has heavily benefited white women over women of color.“I didn’t know what to expect, and everything went perfectly, I think,” Kasatkina said. “And I’m just really thankful to everyone who messaged me, who supported me. Of course, there was also some negative parts, but I just didn’t feel it at all. Just the people on the internet, so it wasn’t important to me at all.”Kasatkina said her life day-to-day had not changed nearly as much as her mood.“I just started to feel much better,” Kasatkina said. “Just being myself and feeling more free to do the things I want to do, the things I feel I need to do. It’s amazing. To live with the feeling of freedom, it’s a great feeling.”Kasatkina, left, came out as gay earlier this year, making public her relationship with the Russian figure skater Natalia Zabiiako.John G Mabanglo/EPA, via ShutterstockShe has climbed back into the top 10 in 2022, snagging the eighth and last singles qualifying spot for the WTA Finals after serving as an alternate in 2018 in Singapore without getting to play a match.“I guess we could say I caught the last train to be here,” Kasatkina said. “I was pretty stressed in the race, because it was pretty tight. But being here feels great.”Banned from Wimbledon along with all players from Russia and its ally Belarus, Kasatkina might not have qualified for Fort Worth if the tours had not stripped Wimbledon of ranking points in retaliation for the Russian ban.Elena Rybakina, a Russian-born player who now represents Kazakhstan, won the Wimbledon women’s singles title, but, without the 2,000 points that normally go with a Grand Slam title, did not qualify for the WTA Finals.Kasatkina and the Belarusian star Aryna Sabalenka both finished in the top eight and have been able to play a nearly full season because of the tours’ decision to allow individuals from Russia and Belarus to compete, albeit without flags or national identification.“Of course, we appreciate that we can keep our jobs and play,” Kasatkina said. “We are lucky, and we are super thankful for this.”Her resurgent season has been a long time coming. Though Kasatkina can summon baseline power, her game is, above all, based on craft and spin, on rhythm and tactical shifts.Her former coach Philippe Dehaes called her “a tennis genius,” and with his help she rose to No. 10 in 2018, reaching the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., before losing to Naomi Osaka in what was a breakthrough tournament for both young talents.But Kasatkina was unable to sustain that momentum, splitting with Dehaes in 2019 and spiraling, by her own account, into depression and a crisis of confidence that had her seriously contemplating quitting the sport.Carlos Martinez began coaching Kasatkina in June 2019.Carmen Mandato/Getty ImagesBut she worked through it with help from a psychologist, as well as her brother Alexandr and Martinez, a former Spanish satellite-level player who long coached Kasatkina’s Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.“Carlos took me from the bottom when I was completely broken, let’s say,” Kasatkina said. “We did a very good job together coming back to the top 10. I’m glad and grateful that he had this patience.”Martinez, who began coaching her in June 2019, believed in Kasatkina’s talent but needed to help her recover confidence.“She came from tough moments when the expectation around her was very high, finishing top 10 in 2018,” Martinez said Thursday. “In the beginning, it was just about building a base, building a player who could play on every surface and can adapt to different games.”Although she can summon baseline power, Kasatkina’s game is based on craft and spin.Martin Divisek/EPA, via ShutterstockThe pandemic gave them additional time to work at Martinez’s club, and they focused more on improving tactics and attitude than on technical adjustments“Two or three years ago, this match with Coco, she would have lost, 6-2, 6-2,” Martinez said. “No chance. You would have seen frustration, but now, no. She knows she can change the course of the match every single point.”Consistency remains an issue. Kasatkina has lost in one of her first two rounds in 11 events this year, but she also reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open and won two singles titles, compiling a 40-20 record through all the travels and the tumult.Against Garcia on Saturday, she can extend her finest season for at least one more match and then head to the Maldives with Zabiiako for sun, calm and vacation.Returning to Russia will have to wait.“Maybe when the war will be finished,” she said. More

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      in Tennis

      In First Round of the US Open, a Ukrainian Player Upset Simona Halep

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      Daria Snigur, 20, burst into tears after defeating Simona Halep of Romania, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, in three sets on Monday in the first round of the U.S. Open.Snigur, a Ukrainian who is ranked No. 124 in the world, was making her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam singles tournament; she had to win three matches to qualify. Her win over Halep was her first career victory at the WTA Tour level.“When I was in the moment, I didn’t understand what happened,” Snigur told reporters after the match. “I think it was the best match in my career.”After Snigur’s win, her father, who was in the stands, put his hands on top of his head as if in disbelief.“My father didn’t understand, too,” Snigur said.Halep, the No. 7 seed, is coached by Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’s former coach. Halep had been given 8-to-1 odds to win the tournament before it began, according to SportsBetting.ag.“I had tickets tomorrow to Warsaw,” Snigur said.After shaking hands with Halep and the chair umpire, Snigur stepped back onto the court to wave at the crowd. She made a heart shape with her hands over a yellow-and-blue ribbon affixed to her top, a tribute to her country in the midst of war.“Ukraine is always in my heart,” Snigur said of the gesture. “This victory is for Ukraine.”While her father was able to travel with her for the tournament, Snigur said that her mother was still in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Leading up to the U.S. Open, Snigur said she trained in the Latvian capital of Riga because the tennis facility she used in Ukraine had been bombed by Russian forces.“Sometimes it’s impossible to play, but I try to do my best,” Snigur said. “I try to do the best for Ukraine. I try to support my country.”In another symbol of support for the country, the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York, an amateur ensemble that specializes in music from Ukraine, performed a song before Monday night’s match in Arthur Ashe Stadium between Serena Williams and Danka Kovinic. More

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      in Soccer

      Soccer’s Return to Ukraine Is Marred by Broken Contracts and Bad Faith

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      European soccer offered support to Ukrainian teams when Russia invaded the country. Now, as rivals bargain shop in wartime, one top club says the sense of solidarity is gone.Like his fellow chief executives at soccer clubs across Europe, Sergei Palkin of the Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk spent weeks this summer negotiating player trades.He and Fulham, a team newly promoted to England’s Premier League, settled on a fee of about $8 million for Manor Solomon, Shakhtar’s Israeli attacker. Then Palkin agreed to accept a payment around double that amount from Lyon, in France’s Ligue 1, for another of Shakhtar’s foreign-born stars, the 22-year-old Brazilian midfielder Tetê.The deals were a financial lifeline for Shakhtar: They would deliver a vital cash infusion to club accounts battered by war with Russia in exchange for valuable talents who, in some cases, no longer wanted to play in Ukraine.But just when the contracts for the deals, and others, were about to be signed, world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, announced that it had extended a regulation allowing foreign players under contract with Ukrainian clubs to temporarily go elsewhere without penalty. The rule — created in March as an interim measure when Ukraine’s season was suspended — would now remain in place for the entire 2022-23 season, FIFA said.And with that, both Lyon and Fulham informed Palkin that they were scrapping the multimillion-dollar deals the sides had discussed. Instead, they would take the players for nothing.“They just talk about the football family,” Palkin said. “But in real life there is no football family.”The Shakhtar chief executive Sergei Palkin.Bradley Secker for The New York TimesA Lyon spokesman said the club disputed Palkin’s recounting of events, but declined to provide details. Fulham declined to comment.Both teams abided by the rules, but the incidents — and others — have left Palkin frustrated and angry. In July, Shakhtar announced plans to sue FIFA for $50 million — the value, it says, of deals that vaporized when the rule allowing players to break their Ukrainian contracts was extended.The situation is a far cry from the widespread messages of solidarity with Ukraine from soccer’s leaders and rival teams in the days and weeks after Russia’s invasion began in February. Instead, Palkin says he has been left with a distaste for the way some in the soccer community have treated Ukrainian clubs like Shakhtar. Shows of support and kind words have been replaced by broken promises and the poaching of players and youth prospects, all of it, in his view, driven by the oil that lubricates the industry: money.The State of the WarZaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant: After United Nations inspectors visited the Russian-controlled facility last week amid continuing shelling and fears of a looming nuclear catastrophe, the organization released a report calling for Russia and Ukraine to halt all military activity around the complex.Europe’s Energy Crisis: European leaders are pushing through economic relief packages to soften the blow of soaring costs tied to the war. In Germany, officials are trying a range of measures to alleviate the crisis, including extending the lives of two of the country’s last nuclear reactors.Russia’s Military Expansion: Though President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a sharp increase in the size of Russia’s armed forces, he seems reluctant to declare a draft. Here is why.Relying on Old Tech: Russia’s new cruise missiles and attack helicopters appear to contain low-tech components, analysts found, undercutting Moscow’s narrative of a rebuilt military that rivals its Western adversaries.Lyon, for example, recently offered to pay Shakhtar 3 million euros, or about $3.01 million, for the permanent transfer of Tetê, Palkin said — less than one-fifth of what Shakhtar believed it had agreed on as a fee for him earlier this summer. Palkin turned down the offer.“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It’s peanuts. It’s not respectful from FIFA or the clubs.”FIFA said its position of allowing foreign players under contract with Ukrainian teams to play elsewhere temporarily is better than the alternative: players’ unilaterally breaking their contracts. But while there appears to be no sign that the war is ending, there is now also little likelihood that many of the players will ever return to their Ukrainian clubs.When Shakhtar takes the field on Tuesday for its first game on Ukrainian soil since last December — part of the long-delayed restart of the country’s top league — very little will be the same beyond the team’s familiar burnt orange colors. For the first time in two decades, a team known for stocking its roster with imported stars will be almost exclusively Ukrainian. There will be no fans at the stadium in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital and Shakhtar’s latest temporary home, for the match against Metalist 1925. And the players from both teams will have gone through drills of what to do in the event they hear the air raid siren while they are on the field.Nothing is normal, Palkin admitted, but for the sake of Ukrainian soccer, the games must be played. If the season does not start, he said, some soccer clubs in the country would probably fold.Two clubs are already gone from the 16-team league: F.C. Mariupol and Desna Chernihiv, which both announced they their withdrawals ahead of this season. Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus, has been battered by Russian forces, and Mariupol, a southern port city, is now under Russian control. The city, besieged for weeks, has been described by the United Nations as the “deadliest place in Ukraine.”Even in other cities, though, signs of war will be hard to avoid. Palkin said the threat of a Russian attack on matches cannot be discounted.“They can target anything in Ukraine,” he said of the Russian military and its allies in the war. Shakhtar will play its games in Kyiv and Lviv, the city where, at the start of the war, the club helped pay to convert the soccer stadium it had been using into a shelter for refugees.Families living inside the Arena Lviv, which will host some of Shakhtar’s matches when Ukraine’s top soccer league opens its delayed season this week.Mauricio Lima for The New York TimesShakhtar also will play in Europe’s top club competition, the Champions League, but those games will be held in Warsaw because European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, has barred Ukraine from hosting international games as a safety precaution.Shakhtar officials had proposed playing the Ukrainian league games outside the country, too. But the government overruled the idea, deciding that live games, even in empty stadiums and in the comparatively safer western part of the country, would serve as an important prong of the propaganda war.“Ukrainian sports and the will to win on all fronts cannot be stopped!” Ukraine’s sports minister, Vadym Gutzeit, wrote on his Facebook page last week. His post, heralding the return of the Ukrainian Premier League, outlined a list of protocols that must be followed at each game, including evacuation plans, fixed shelters no more than 500 meters, or about 1,640 feet, from each stadium, and a script for stadium announcers in the event that air raid sirens sound: “Attention! Air alarm! We ask everyone to follow us to the shelter!”While Gutzeit’s post highlighted the extraordinary conditions in which soccer will return to Ukraine, it also underlined why many players were not eager to return and take part.Palkin said about 10 players from Shakhtar’s under-19 team had refused to return to Ukraine, where a youth league is also being organized. “I understand them,” he said. “I can’t guarantee they will be safe.” More

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      in Basket

      Brittney Griner’s Case Draws Attention to ‘Wrongful Detentions’

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      Dozens of Americans are believed to be held by foreign adversaries as political pawns in disputes with the United States.WASHINGTON — Brittney Griner. Austin Tice. The Citgo 6. And now, potentially, three American military veterans who were captured by enemy forces after traveling to Ukraine to fight Russia.They are among nearly 50 Americans who the State Department believes are wrongfully detained by foreign governments. At least a dozen more Americans are being held as hostages — including by extremist groups — or on criminal charges that their families dispute.American citizens are increasingly attractive targets for U.S. adversaries — including China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela — looking to use them as political pawns in battles with the United States.Ms. Griner, a professional basketball player, is perhaps the most high-profile American to be snared by what the State Department has called dubious charges. She was detained in February at an airport near Moscow after authorities said they found hashish oil in her luggage. Her arrest came just days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine, which is being armed by the United States and its allies.This past week, Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the Biden administration would continue to work to make sure that Ms. Griner, Paul Whelan — another American held by Moscow — and “all unjustly detained Americans and hostages are home safely.”Here is a look at “wrongful detentions,” as they are known, and some of the struggles of Americans held overseas.What does ‘wrongfully detained’ mean?Generally, an American who is held by a foreign government for the purposes of influencing U.S. policy or extracting political or economic concessions from Washington is considered “wrongfully detained.” In these cases, negotiations between the United States and the other government are key to securing the American’s freedom.The State Department does not release the precise number of Americans that it has determined are in that category. But a senior State Department official said there were 40 to 50 wrongfully detained Americans abroad.“Hostage” is a blanket term used to describe Americans who have been blocked from leaving a foreign country. Some are held by terrorist organizations or other groups with whom the State Department does not have diplomatic relations. In these cases, the F.B.I. and other intelligence or law enforcement agencies lead negotiations.According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, named for a journalist who was killed in Syria by the Islamic State in 2014, 64 Americans are wrongfully detained abroad or being held hostage.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 6What happened? More

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      in Tennis

      Lesia Tsurenko Plays Tennis to Earn Money to Help Ukraine

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      WIMBLEDON, England — Lesia Tsurenko’s Wimbledon campaign ended Friday during a match in which her head was someplace else.Ms. Tsurenko, a 33-year-old tennis veteran from Kyiv, had been watching the news from home all week and seeing that Russians had bombed a shopping mall and other civilian targets.“They’re just trying to kill as many people as possible,” Ms. Tsurenko said of the Russian military.Since February, she had gotten better at keeping thoughts about the Russian invasion of Ukraine out of her mind when she was on the tennis court, but Friday was a bad day. She said she felt off-balance from the time she woke up, “like there was no ground beneath my feet.” And once she took the court against Jule Neimeier of Germany, she said she “had no idea how to play tennis.”Juggling the constant travel and physical and mental grind of professional tennis is hard for even the best players. For players from Ukraine these days, who have not been home in months and spend much of their free time getting updates on the health and safety of friends and family members back home, the challenge is monumental.The good news for Ms. Tsurenko is she seems to have found a semi-permanent home in northern Italy, at an academy run by the famed coach Ricardo Piatti. She has an apartment. Her sister, Oksana, recently joined her. So did her husband, Nikita Vlasov, a former military officer, who is ready to return as soon as he gets the call but for the moment the forces do not need someone at his level.“We have no problem with people,” Ms. Tsurenko said, a little while after her defeat. “The problem is the heavy weapons.”Ms. Tsurenko left Ukraine before the war started, so she is not technically a refugee. Recently, she had to miss a tournament so she could stay in Italy and file paperwork to allow her to remain there. She is waiting for approval. Also, her mother, who lives near Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, does not want to leave, despite heavy bombing. The mother of her sister’s husband also lives there.Her time playing tennis in England the past month has provided a respite. Russian and Belarusian players were barred from competing at Wimbledon. Knowing how popular President Vladimir V. Putin remains in Russia, Ms. Tsurenko has assumed some of the Russian and Belarusian players likely support him. It’s been better, she said, not bumping into them in the locker room, though she will soon when the WTA Tour moves outside of Britain and they return to competition.There have been many matches since the war began Feb. 24 when Ms. Tsurenko has wondered what she is even doing playing tennis. One particular match in Marbella, Spain, stands out. That morning she had seen a photo of an administration building in Mykolaiv with a massive hole from a missile strike. She could not get the image out of her head.Lately, though, she has found clarity. She has always played tennis because she loves the game. The riches the sport offered never motivated her. Now they do.“I play for the money now,” she said. “I want to earn so much so I can donate this,” she said, “I feel like that may be a bad quality, because it has nothing to do with tennis, but that is what I am playing.”Coming into the tournament, Ms. Tsurenko, who has four career WTA titles and has earned more than $5 million, had won $214,000 so far this year. Making the third round at Wimbledon earned her an additional $96,000. For the world’s 101st ranked player, that is a solid month’s work. She hopes there will be more ahead this summer. More

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      in Tennis

      Iga Swiatek, a World No. 1, Gets Comfortable Using Her Clout

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      “It’s a new position that I’m in, and I’m trying to use it the best way possible,” Swiatek said. She announced an exhibition match to help raise money for young Ukrainians.WIMBLEDON, England — Iga Swiatek, cap still pulled low after her latest victory, was sitting in a players café perched high above the All England Club and the grass she is still learning to love.From her table on Thursday evening, there was a sweeping, soothing vista of privileged people enjoying their privileges, but Swiatek’s focus was elsewhere. It was on the war in Ukraine and on the exhibition match that she had announced a day earlier to help raise money for young Ukrainians.It will be held on July 23 in Krakow in Swiatek’s home country of Poland. For Swiatek, ranked No. 1 and on a 37-match winning streak, it is the latest sign that she wants to use her new and rapidly expanding platform to do much more than sell shoes and pile up Instagram followers.“It’s a new position that I’m in, and I’m trying to use it the best way possible,” Swiatek said. “But I still haven’t figured out how to use it the best way, you know? But for sure, I want to show my support.”“I’ve been really emotional about it,” she said of the war.Poland, which borders Ukraine, has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees, but Swiatek, whose job takes her to five continents, is concerned that too much of the rest of the world is moving on, along with some of her fellow players.After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, many players began wearing ribbons on court that were blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine’s national flag. At this stage, Swiatek is one of the few non-Ukrainians still wearing the ribbon, which she pins to the side of her cap.“In our country, we are aware that there is war, but when I’m traveling, I can see there is not a lot of news about it,” Swiatek said. “For sure, there was at the beginning, but later there was more and more silence. So basically, I hope I’m going to remind people that the war is out there. Society, we don’t have a long memory. But, I mean, lives are at stake so I think we should remind people.”Swiatek, 21, also used her victory speech at last month’s French Open to offer her support for Ukraine.Swiatek wearing a pin in support of Ukraine.Adam Stoltman for The New York Times“But that’s just talking, I suppose,” she said. “Right now, I’m pretty happy that we are making some action.”The exhibition will feature a match between Swiatek and the retired Polish tennis star Agnieszka Radwanska and raise funds in support of children and teenagers affected by the war in Ukraine. Elina Svitolina, Ukraine’s most successful current player who is pregnant and off the tour for the moment, will serve as a chair umpire. Sergiy Stakhovsky, a former Ukrainian men’s star now in the Ukrainian army, will play doubles with Radwanska against Swiatek and a Polish partner.Wimbledon has, of course, taken action, too, generating great debate in the game as the only Grand Slam tennis tournament to bar Russian and Belarusian players because of the invasion. The All England Club made the move, a wrenching one, under some pressure to act from the British government, but the club stuck by its position despite being stripped of ranking points by the men’s and women’s tours.Swiatek would have liked more consultation between the leaders of the tour and the entire player group on the decision to strip points, although the WTA player council, with its elected representatives, was deeply involved in the process.“I wasn’t really focused on points before, because we should talk about war and people suffering and not about points,” Swiatek said. “But for sure, when I think about that, it seems like right now for the winners, and for people who are winning and really working hard, it’s not going to be fair.”British public opinion polls have reflected support for Wimbledon’s ban even if the other big events in tennis, including the U.S. Open, have not followed Wimbledon’s lead, maintaining that individual athletes should not be punished for the actions of their governments.Swiatek’s counterpart on the men’s tour: the No. 1 ranked Daniil Medvedev, a charismatic and polyglot Russian, is not in London and is instead training (and golfing) at his base in the south of France. Six women’s singles players ranked in the top 40, including No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, also have been barred.The ban has been met with mixed reactions on tour, both publicly and privately, but Swiatek, after much deliberation, can see Wimbledon’s perspective.“I think it’s the only way to show that it’s wrong, having war, and their aggression is wrong,” she said.“It’s not fair, for sure, sometimes for these players,” she said of the barred group. “But we are public, and we have impact. That’s why we are making a lot of money also. We are sometimes on TV everywhere, and sports has been in politics. I know people want to separate that, and I also would like to kind of not be involved in every aspect of politics, but in these kind of matters it is, and you can’t help it sometimes.”Wimbledon has not emphasized the Russian and Belarusian ban during the tournament, but it has invited all Ukrainian refugees who have settled in the area near Wimbledon to attend the tournament on Sunday.The most eloquent opponents of the Russian invasion of Ukraine during the tournament have been its players, including Lesia Tsurenko, the last Ukrainian left in singles, who lost in the third round on Friday to Jule Niemeier of Germany.All of the leading Ukrainian players have had to leave the country to continue their careers. Some like Anhelina Kalinina are still living out of suitcases and using tournament sites as training bases, but Tsurenko has finally been able to rent an apartment in Italy and is often training alongside Marta Kostyuk, another talented Ukrainian player, at the tennis center operated by the longtime Italian coach Riccardo Piatti in Bordighera.“A small town by the sea,” Tsurenko said. “And sometimes, when you are just eating great food and having amazing Italian espresso, and you see that you are surrounded by beautiful nature, for some moments you forget and you’re relaxed, and you think, oh, the life is good. But it’s just seconds. It’s very tough for me to explain to you, and I hope the people will never feel this, but it’s just like some part of me is just always so tight. And I think it will be a big release when the war will finish, but not before.”Tsurenko during a break in the third round women’s singles match against Niemeier.Alberto Pezzali/Associated PressSwiatek, raised in a family of modest means in the suburbs of Warsaw, cannot fully grasp what the Ukrainians are experiencing, but she can sympathize, and she is increasingly determined to act. She, like Naomi Osaka before her and the 18-year-old American Coco Gauff, are part of a new wave of WTA stars who have made it clear that they do not intend to stick simply to sports. Gauff has been vocal in recent weeks about gun violence and about the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.Martina Navratilova, a former No. 1 who remains an activist on many fronts, has been watching Swiatek and Gauff find their voices.“Socially, the awareness from these two, they could really change the world,” said Navratilova, who vows to block anyone on Twitter who tells her to stick to tennis.Swiatek is not there yet. She is still navigating how and where to use her clout, but she is all in on July 23 in Krakow.“For me, it’s really important,” she said. “It’s like a fifth Grand Slam.” More

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      in Basket

      Moscow Court Orders Brittney Griner Held in Jail for Another 18 Days

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      A Russian court on Tuesday extended the pretrial detention of the W.N.B.A. basketball star Brittney Griner on drug smuggling charges until July 2, pushing her jail stint past the four month mark, according to the official state news agency TASS.The Khimki Court of the Moscow region granted the 18-day extension at the request of investigators, the agency quoted the court’s press service as saying. It is typical of Russian courts to extend detention repeatedly until trial. Ms. Griner’s lawyer, Aleksandr Boikov, could not immediately be reached for comment.The American basketball star was arrested four months ago after Russian officials said they found vape cartridges bearing traces of hash oil in her luggage while she was passing through Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow’s main international airport. The charge carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years.Ms. Griner was arrested on Feb. 17, one week before Russia invaded Ukraine, but officials did not reveal that she had been detained until days after the war began, raising fears that she might be used as a bargaining chip in the overall crisis. There has been some speculation that once convicted, Ms. Griner might be part of a prisoner exchange with the United States.A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Ms. Griner plays for the Phoenix Mercury, and U.S. officials met with the team on Monday to discuss efforts to secure her release. In May, the State Department said it determined that Ms. Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”When she was taken into custody, Ms. Griner was returning to Russia to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team. Many W.N.B.A. players supplement their incomes in the league’s off-season by playing internationally. More

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      in Tennis

      Medvedev Seizes Chance to Make an Impression on French Open Fans

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      Daniil Medvedev and other Russians, barred from competing at Wimbledon because of the war in Ukraine, have made a run in the French Open. The ban remains a sensitive issue in tennis.PARIS — Banned from Wimbledon, the Russians seem intent on making the most of the Grand Slam tournament at hand.One by one, they took to the red clay at the French Open on Saturday, and one by one, they emerged victorious.Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova advanced to the fourth round in women’s singles. Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev did the same in men’s singles, joining their compatriot Karen Khachanov, who was already set to face Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish teen sensation, on Sunday.Medvedev remains the most intriguing Russian at Roland Garros on multiple levels. As the No. 2 seed, he is on relatively dry land for the moment: on the opposite half of the draw from Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Alcaraz.He was once seemingly allergic to clay, at least the French Open, losing in the first round in his first four appearances. He still has a losing record on the surface, but he made a French Open quarterfinal run last year, and after hernia surgery in March that caused him to miss most of the clay-court season, he arrived in Paris seemingly fresh in body and mind. On court, he has rumbled past three solid players in straight sets, including the No. 28 seed Miomir Kecmanovic on Saturday: 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.Medvedev did not lose his serve and seemed to be one step or slide ahead of Kecmanovic from start to finish, absorbing pace, producing power and precision on demand, and using his big wingspan at 6-foot-6 to close down the openings.“Today was truly magnificent,” Medvedev said in the sunshine as he gave his post-match interview on Suzanne Lenglen Court. “It was all working for me. There are days like that, and I hope more like that will be possible in the days ahead.”Medvedev was conducting the interview in fluent French. He has been based on the French Riviera since his teens, and with his droll sense of humor and language skills he is able to connect with the Parisian public on a level that is unusual for a foreign tennis player (as long as he continues to avoid berating chair umpires or breaking rackets in a fit of pique).The global repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have included a sensitive dilemma for tennis, prompted by Wimbledon’s decision to bar Russian and Belarusian players from the tournament next month. The men’s and women’s tours responded by stripping Wimbledon of its ranking points, saying the move was needed to protect its systems that in part determine tournament qualifications.It is, as Djokovic described it, “a lose-lose” situation: full of hard choices and restless nights for those making the calls.But Medvedev, caught in the maelstrom, hardly seemed a pariah on Saturday as he cracked jokes with the interviewer Marion Bartoli, a former French star and Wimbledon champion.“He speaks French as well as we do, like someone born in France even if he was born in Moscow,” she said. “He understands what is going on, understands his environment, and it’s clear that it pleases the public here a great deal that he communicates in their language.”Some of that is due to communicating for years in French with his longtime French coach, Gilles Cervara.“Gilles is sometimes trying to use words on purpose that I don’t know, that I should know, that are uncommon,” Medvedev said. “It’s the same thing with tennis, where you’re trying to do things that are out of the ordinary to shake things up and do something extra. You have to always improve.”I asked Medvedev later what it would take for him to be considered “a dirtballer.”His reaction: “What is ‘dirtballer’?”Apprised that it meant clay-courter, he smiled and said: “I’ll have to do better than last year in Roland Garros. That’s for sure.”Like many a Muscovite, including Rublev, Medvedev grew up playing much of the year in fast indoor conditions.“It was not even hardcourts — it was more like indoor ice,” Rublev said with a laugh on Saturday. “You touch the ball and the ball is like a rocket. You hit one ball and the ball is going so fast, even when you are 6 years old. In Moscow, there is actually plenty of clay, but the problem is there’s not much summer, only two or three months, so you don’t get much time to play on it.”Rublev, the No. 7 seed and long based in Spain, has had more consistent results on clay at the pro level and was a quarterfinalist at the French Open in 2020 and a finalist at the Monte Carlo Open last year. His forehand, hit with heavy topspin and major racket-head speed, fits the traditional vision of a clay-courter much more than Medvedev’s with his comparatively flat strokes.But it is very tempting to agree with Rublev that Medvedev’s biggest obstacle on clay is between the ears.“He didn’t beat Djokovic in Monte Carlo for nothing,” Rublev said in an interview, recalling a 2019 upset. “So, I think it’s more about him, that he put this in his head, than it is about the clay. And we can all see now that he has won all the matches here quite easy, beating good players.”Still, the path does not get smoother. Medvedev is in a more welcoming neighborhood than the top half of the draw, but it is still a rough neighborhood with Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz and Casper Ruud all on the prowl.Next up for Medvedev: the No. 20 seed Marin Cilic, who overwhelmed a weary Gilles Simon, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, on Saturday in the 37-year-old Simon’s final French Open match (he will retire at year’s end). Simon, one of the cleanest hitters and deeper thinkers on tour, gave an excellent summary of why it will soon be time to bid adieu.“It’s a lot of work and a lot of suffering,” Simon said. “I am at three anti-inflammatories and six paracetamols before the match. The only thing left to try is morphine. I know where I’m at. I’ll give it my all until the end of the year.”Medvedev sounded world-weary himself after losing the Australian Open final to Nadal in January with the crowd against him. He looked tired and irritable in March as he lost early in Indian Wells to Gael Monfils and in the quarterfinals in Miami to Hurkacz before undergoing surgery.Even his successes have been tempered of late. When he rose to No. 1 for the first time on Feb. 28, his breakthrough came as Russia invaded Ukraine, rightly darkening the mood. He stayed on top for only three weeks before Djokovic reclaimed the spot. But the tours’ decision to strip the points from Wimbledon, where Djokovic won the title last year, means that Medvedev is in prime position to return to No. 1 in the coming weeks.Barring a highly unlikely compromise, he will be watching Wimbledon from afar, but for now at least, he is in the Grand Slam arena, in no mood to talk politics but increasingly eager to speak in French and about clay.“I hope the better I speak French, the better I will play,” he said on court, the Roland Garros crowd already “dans la poche” (in the pocket), even if the champions trophy is not. More