This week was a longer and more complicated week than usual for tennis professional Vitalia Diatchenko.
Three days ago Diatchenko, who was born in Sochi, Russia met with officials in Elm Park Tennis Club, who she had known from previous years. The 31-year-old, who is coming back from injury and ranked 113th in the world, has used the Dublin club’s facilities many times to prepare for the grass court season in Europe.
She has been coming to Ireland for 10 years and uses the country as a training base. Her coach is also Irish. Mullingar’s Gary Cahill, founder of Prodigy Tennis was high-performance director with Tennis Ireland for 13 years.
Over the course of a normal year Diatchenko would spend several months in Dublin travelling to and from tournaments. Three weeks ago she played in the qualifying event for Roland Garros and trained in Portugal for the clay-court season. When Roland Garros ends this weekend the grass-court season in Europe will kick off.
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Diatchenko had lunch at the Elm Park club and met with officials where it was agreed that they would organise a practice session and set up tennis clinics for some members. The club sent out an email to players informing them of the arrangement.
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“Russian tennis professional, Vitalia Diatchenko who is currently ranked 71st in the world will be practising for Wimbledon in Elm Park over the next few days,” said the email. ”We are delighted to welcome her back from Tuesday May 31st to Thursday June 2nd to practise on our grass courts. Vitalia will be in the club from 11.30am to 3pm with her coaches (weather permitting).
“Members are welcome to watch the practice sessions. A selection of our junior tennis members selected by Rob Cherry have the opportunity to hit with Vitalia and we hope they enjoy their experience of hitting with such a great player.”
The ranking was not correct and Diatchenko was not preparing for Wimbledon, although she had prepared at Elm Park in previous years for Wimbledon. She has played in all four of the Grand Slam events, making it to the third round at Wimbledon in 2018.
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However, in a unilateral action in April a decision was taken by Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association to exclude players from Russia and Belarus from this year’s British grass-court season because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Later the same evening after the first email, members received a second email from the club. It had changed its mind on the issue of Diatchenko using their tennis courts.
“Dear member, having received communication from members expressing their concern regarding the young Russian player practising in Elm Park, we believe our original decision was inappropriate in light of the current situation,” said the email.
“We therefore have now retracted the approval for our facilities to be used for practice by this young Russian player. We sincerely apologise for any upset caused.”
Diatchenko, whose father is Ukrainian, is in Dublin representing no one other than herself and she is not competing in any event.
Her team made three more efforts to find a grass court in Dublin on which she could practise. But they could not find a club to accept her request because of the Leinster branch and Tennis Ireland’s interpretation of a statement issued by Sport Ireland on March 14th. Elm Park were simply following advice.
Ordinary Russian people are no more to blame than the average American was for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or British citizens for the killing of hundreds on the retreating Belgrano during the Falklands war
“We encourage all of Ireland’s national governing bodies to take a firm position and encourage their international federations to condemn the invasion and ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from their events and competitions,” said the statement adding it was “unequivocal in its position on the exclusion of both Russia and Belarus – including those representing bodies, cities or brands that are effectively representing Russia or Belarus – from any and all international sports.”
Tennis Ireland (TI) have interpreted the statement as playing an event and practising being in the same category. “We’ve taken that interpretation whether its playing or practising, it’s in the same category,” said a TI official. So it is policy interpretation.
Another view is ordinary Russian people are no more to blame than the average American was for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or British citizens for the killing of hundreds on the retreating Belgrano during the Falklands war, and see the easy targeting of players like Diatchenko as wrong and improper.
Others argue that soft sanctions such as the banning of athletes is a way of drawing attention to what is happening and bringing a sense of enlightenment to every day Russians and Belarusians fed on a diet of state-delivered propaganda.
The Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association, organisations that represent male and female professional players also took a principled stand. The WTA said: “Discrimination, and the decision to focus such discrimination against athletes competing on their own as individuals, is neither fair nor justified.”
The question is how far to go in cancelling Vladimir Putin’s Russia with some viewing it as akin to the apartheid-era bans on South African sports men and women that served to ostracise the ruling National Party.
Then, what comes after running Diatchenko off the courts at Elm Park, an orchestra refusing to play Rachmaninoff, suppressing the works of Tolstoy.
In the confusion of Russian carnage and what to do, it is easy to come to a place where a plausible and moral choice might be the wrong choice to take.
