THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 1, 2022

Lesia Tsurenko

Press Conference

J. NIEMEIER/L. Tsurenko

6-4, 3-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How are you feeling? You obviously looked very frustrated towards the end. How disappointed are you with that?

LESIA TSURENKO: I honestly don't know what happened to me today. I did not feel well the whole match. I was not able to serve. I don't know. I'm just very, very nervous today, since I woke up.

Few days like that happened to me in the last few months, so I think it's just one of those days when your body and your mind are not your friends. This is how I felt today, like I cannot control what my body is doing.

That's why I had so many mistakes. I was not able to win my serve. I was not able to do the first serve, so I did not have a rhythm on any of the shots.

It's strange, but it happens sometimes unfortunately. I think it's just mental overload.

Q. Do you think with everything happening back in Ukraine that sometimes makes it hard to concentrate?

LESIA TSURENKO: For sure. As I said, a few days like that happened to me feeling nervous with no reason. Let's say, I mean, no reason, no real reason. I know that there is a war at home, and I think it's just makes me too nervous sometimes. It's definitely affecting, but probably I was just not able to separate today.

Q. Do you think you'll look back with pride at your two victories here?

LESIA TSURENKO: For me, it's anyway a positive few weeks. I played quite a lot of matches, which did not happen to me for almost three years. And I also finding this balance and like separating what's going on at home and playing tennis.

So I'm still learning how to do it, and I had a lot of emotions also in the previous match, but mostly like positive emotions after. It was not actually -- as I said, previous match was not also a good quality for me.

So let's see. I will have a good rest, some more days for recovery of my elbow, and I should be ready for the next tournaments, earning points.

Q. Where are you going to be based? I'm guessing you're not going to back to Kyiv.

LESIA TSURENKO: No, I'm now based in Italy. I was able to find an apartment, which was not easy, because there are many Ukrainians everywhere, and they all need to live somewhere. So it took me few months, two months probably to find apartment, long-term apartment there.

So now I have it, and I practice in Piatti academy, which is a very nice place with nice people. It's my base now. And I spend a lot of time with Marta, because she's also practicing there and we live not far away from each other. It's a good place.

Q. You're donating 10% of your prize money to Ukraine?

LESIA TSURENKO: Yes.

Q. How much will that mean for your people back home?

LESIA TSURENKO: I really hope that I'm doing a big thing helping people with financially, with money. I think this is the best thing that I can do from my side.

I see it as something bigger, like a goal, a purpose. Yeah, I will definitely see how much I earn, and I will just see where I can send this money. I will hope for sure the south of Ukraine because it's the region where I grew up.

Yeah, I'll see, definitely I will help Ukraine as much as I can.

Q. When did you last see your immediate family? Are they still in Ukraine?

LESIA TSURENKO: Yes, my mom is in Ukraine. My sister, she came to my place in Italy, so I saw her recently. Now she's waiting for me to come back.

Q. Do you speak to your mum lots and is she okay?

LESIA TSURENKO: Yeah, every day.

Q. There is one player who switched allegiance from Russia to Georgia who's playing in the doubles. What do you think about that?

LESIA TSURENKO: That's her decision. I mean, again, as Ukrainian, I don't like Russian Federation, and Belarus a little bit less, but still, those two countries invade Ukraine, and especially Russian Federation. I don't like that country.

So maybe in 10 years, maybe in 20 years, it will be easier for me to, just to accept some things, but for now it's very tough. That's her decision.

I lived in Georgia when I was small, so I like that country.

Q. You talk about all the emotion you have gone through and the physical, how tired you are physically today...

LESIA TSURENKO: I'm not tired. I'm still shaking, and I felt like this for the whole match, and since I woke up.

But the warmup was quite good. I was able to find some balance. But on the match, no, I made hundreds of mistake. I think it was a bad quality match for me. Credits to her, she did a lot of good things, like slicing and playing a lot of volleys.

Everything was just wrong for me today. That's how I felt on court, and I was fighting, but at the end was just disaster. I probably never played a match like that from my side.

Q. How will you try to relax your body and your mind after this with everything that's going on? Or do you think you're not able to?

LESIA TSURENKO: I don't relax. That's true. I don't see a way to do it now. I can go for massage, but probably I will think about what's going on at home.

Sometimes, sometimes when I train in Italy, it's a very nice place, and it's a small city, a small town by the sea, and sometimes when you are just, you know, 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, like, 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, but -- and I hope none of the people will ever 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.

Q. Do you feel guilty when you feel like that, when you relax in Italy, and for those few seconds afterwards...

LESIA TSURENKO: Badly. But when I spend money, in some way it makes me feel easier.

Q. I'm from Serbia, and as you may know, in Serbia didn't impose sanctions on Russia because of everything that's been going. In Serbia, we sort of have a lot of people that like Russia and Russians, they're supportive of Russia, even during this whole situation. I'd like to ask you if you have an opinion about that, and does that maybe even bother you? Because Serbia is probably one of, if not "the" only European country outside of Belarus that didn't impose sanctions on Russia.

LESIA TSURENKO: What can I say? I don't feel good about that. I feel that I don't know how can you support a war. I have heard opinions like that.

Q. It's not support of the war but of the Russian people mostly, like that's the official stance of...

LESIA TSURENKO: Look, Russian people are happy when Ukrainians are dying. I saw that chats, On telegram, Instagram. They are happy when Ukrainians are dying. They are happy for what army is doing in Ukraine. How can I feel about that? How can you get happy?

When people are dying in their beds, sleeping, I feel bad about these people. I think they are idiots. I don't know. You just have to change your opinion. You have to think wiser. You have to understand that -- I know that there are many conflicts in this world. I really know that. It's just because I'm Ukrainian, and now it's affecting me exactly.

But I was never thinking that some conflict in the world is okay. No. For me, every time it was painful. I'm like, this world, this life is about having house, having car. Kids, family. Have a dog. Sun is shining. That's all you need in your life. Just spend happy days. These people, what, why, why do they have these ambitions? For what? To get new territories. End.

Did you see Mariupol? The city doesn't exist anymore. What is that? It's not happy life. These people, they don't have water, they don't have anything. They live in a destroyed city. For what? What Russia is doing there? I mean... These people will not live happy life anymore. It has no reason to do that. For Russia or for any other country.

So I don't think -- I don't think that Serbians should say, Okay, we support something, Russian people or Russia in general or Russian president.

No. I support peaceful life. That's it. They have to change, I think.