Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk carries the hopes of a nation – Technologist

Olha Zhuk took a day off, on Tuesday, July 30. To come to Roland-Garros, she picked her best outfit, a sleeveless white dress. Not a wise choice, given the scorching skies. But her arms weren’t left uncovered. The young woman grabbed the fine blue and yellow flag she’d brought with her and draped herself in it.

More than a protection, it was an expression of national pride. “I use this flag for every occasion,” said the 22-year-old student, who is juggling a master’s degree in finance at the Sorbonne with a job in a start-up company. She bought it several months ago for a rally in support of Ukraine.

Zhuk is Ukrainian. She has been living in Paris for the past year. In the stands of the small court number 7, almost empty in the early afternoon, this petite blonde with a discreet appearance came to encourage her compatriot Marta Kostyuk.

Regarding the world’s 19^th-ranked player, 22 years old, and “a rising star for us,” the supporter is not quite up to speed. She doesn’t know, for example, that the Kyiv-born sportswoman has been living in Monaco for the past eight years, like some of the world’s top tennis players. Nor does Zhuk know that she was booed at the French Open in the spring of 2023 for refusing to shake hands with the Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka.

The gesture, or rather its absence, had earned her the scorn of the Parisian public. “I can understand why people booed her, but I have to say I respect her even more for it,” the young spectator said with a smile. “She has clear positions, unlike some of our allies. You can’t say that sport isn’t political. We can’t turn a blind eye.”

The politics of the unsupportive hand

These are words that Kostyuk would certainly not disown. At the start of 2022, with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the young player, who still has family living in Kyiv, criticized the lack of reaction from the pundits at the WTA, the women’s professional circuit. Along with other athletes from her country, she shared a statement on Facebook. The text quotes Italian human rights activist Ginetta Sagan: “Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor.”

On the courts, the Ukrainian translates words into deeds. At the US Open in September 2022, she also refused to shake hands with the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. This was the first episode in a policy of not extending a hand. In March 2023, after winning the tournament in Austin, Texas, she dedicated her victory “to all the people who are fighting and dying” in her country. Speaking out doesn’t scare her. Back in 2016, at the invitation of MP and former swimmer Denys Sylantyev, she asked lawmakers in the Ukrainian Parliament to provide tax credits to sports patrons. She was 13 years old at the time.

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