The Roland Garros semi-final between Marta Kostyuk and Mirra Andreeva was flatter than expected but was always loaded with meaning. Ukrainian Kostyuk had made three WTA finals this year, winning two. In both, she defeated Russian Andreeva on her way to the title, on the Brisbane hard courts in January and then on Madrid clay at the start of May.
In the run up to Roland Garros, Kostyuk had overtaken Andreeva as the brightest female talent on tour, had not lost a match on clay in the season and was stamping her presence on and off the court. But on Thursday evening, Andreeva ensured that in the biggest match of her career, it could not be said that Kostyuk had a number on her.
Their rivalry was not merely tennis over the last two years. Kostyuk has criticised Russian and Belarussian players over the Russian war on Ukraine. After defeating fellow Ukrainian Elena Svitolina in the quarters, Kostyuk dedicated her victory to the Ukrainian people. She said of the Russian players, “After four years, I think they’ve made it very clear whose side they are on.”
Two years ago at Roland Garros, Kostyuk refused to shake hands after losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the first round. She was booed by the crowd and Sabalanka sympathised with her to start with. A Ukrainian reporter harangued Sabalenka repeatedly at the press conference before that line of questioning was stopped. In Paris, when Kostyuk didn’t shake hands with her, Andreeva was prepared and composed.
Being Russian or Belarussian is an uncomfortable place at the moment. It starts with the big players – the Andreeva-Kostyuk semi-final had the crowd at the Chatrier on the Ukrainian’s side. It was pointed out to me that when Russia invaded Ukraine, Andreeva would have been 14 about to turn 15, but today is expected to carry the load of making politically-appropriate public comment.
It’s not just the players. Ever since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, journalists from Moscow have struggled to get accreditations into Grand Slams outside of Roland Garros. In 2025, there were no Russians at the other three events. In 2023, one among them travelled to Australia and reported after buying spectator tickets. The Russian media contingent here at Roland Garros 2026 is small, six at one point, then three with one heading home as his single entry short-stay visa was about to expire.
This when there are three Russian men amongst the top 100 in the ATP rankings, seven women on the WTA list, eleven in the top 125. Russia’s name appears on the ATP website in the dropdown of countries, as does Belarus. On the WTA website, however, there is nothing between Barbados and Belgium or Rwanda and St. Lucia. Three of Russia’s top four women were in the Roland Garros 2026 quarter final. Two featured in the semis. But their country’s flag cannot be placed next to their names on websites and their country’s name is not visible in the draw.
When I ask Eugenii Fediakov, a Russian tennis writer currently with business newspaper Kommersant, about what this feels like, his reply is both contained emotion and visible emoji. “What can I say?” And then his dark Russian humour identifies my fundamental error – “Medvedev, Andreeva, Rublev… they’re not Russian, they’re neutral.” Fediakov has been reporting tennis since 1996, since the Roland Garros “when Kafelnikov won” and makes sure he can get to at least one if not two Grand Slams in a year, tackling travel restrictions and rising costs.
Andrei Vasilev, Russian journalist with the sports.ru website lives and works out of Spain, making it easier for him to travel, particularly in Europe, than other Russians. He says regardless of whatever else it may look like, “tennis is almost not affected.” He then points out how Russian teams have been kept away from club and national competitions and leagues.
“Russians can compete in tennis and so get more attention than other – whether it is on TV ratings and website clicks.” To Russians at home, the strongest sell is the Russia vs the World – whether teams or individuals and in tennis now it is very much Russians vs the best in the world.
In some sports competitions, the war has made no difference: Russian ice hockey player Alex Ovechkin has played for the Washington Cardinals for the last two decades and is its captain and leading star. In 2024 he broke Wayne Gretsky’s all-time goals scoring record and at one point was quoted as saying, “Please no more war. It doesn’t matter who is in the war.”
The Russia-Ukraine animosity is not a recent schism, it has been part of the sporting culture of the country when it was under the Soviet Union, highlighted by the bitterest footballing rivalry between Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv. These days it is said quietly across the region that what previously was sport and expressed through sport and highlighted by sport, is today playing itself out as tragedy.
When putting history and the war in Ukraine into its historical and human context, handshakes, press-conference statements and scratching out flags and country names only end up looking and sounding like what they are – hollow.
