'We share locker rooms with people who want us dead': Ukraine veteran's WTA lawsuit dismissed

Lesia Tsurenko. (Getty/Vaughn Ridley)

Having once suffered a panic attack before facing Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka, it's been revealed that former world No.23 Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko had her lawsuit against the WTA over its handling of the war in Ukraine dismissed.

Nikita Vlasov, her coach, shared damning allegations with French newspaper L'Équipe regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how Ukrainian players are not protected.

"WTA chief Steve Simon knows the names of Russian and Belarusian tennis players who support the invasion in my country, and they do nothing. They just repeat: 'The war in your country, it's really horrible', he told French journalist Quentin Moynet.

"But that's not enough. Those people want us dead! They want my mother, my father, my brothers and my children to die!"

He added: "We share locker rooms with people who want our families dead and our people exterminated. And the WTA does nothing about it."

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In March 2023, Sabalenka progressed to the Indian Wells fourth round via a walkover after her Ukrainian opponent, Tsurenko, struggled to breathe following a conversation with Simon, who is no longer the CEO.

Around this time last year, the 36-year-old lodged a lawsuit against the WTA, citing that "moral abuse" caused the panic attack.

"Even in my worst nightmares, I couldn't imagine that the professional tour, which I considered my home, would become a terrifying and alien place, where the [former] CEO of the organisation consciously committed an act of moral abuse against me, leading to a panic attack and my inability to do my job," Tsurenko wrote on social media.

During that same week, the WTA released a statement to The Associated Press, stating that they had been "steadfast and clear" in condemning Russia's war on Ukraine.

"Consistent with our position, the WTA has taken numerous steps to assist our Ukrainian player members, who have faced great challenges as professional athletes," it read.

"The WTA has been equally clear that it was founded on principles of equality and non-discrimination, and its rules provide that competitions are open to all women players who qualify based on their merit, and without discrimination."

US federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed the complaint filed by Tsurenko, clarifying that Tsurenko failed to demonstrate that the WTA had an obligation to ban Russian and Belarusian players from tour tournaments, even though Simon had allegedly promised her this several years ago.

After filing a private complaint amid discussions with Simon before her match against Sabalenka, not a single WTA member responded to Tsurenko, or even made an attempt to explain, according to the Ukrainian player.

"This indicates that the WTA simply tried to hide this incident, which reflects a clear lack of ethics from our CEO. Such disregard for the situation I found myself in did confuse me and, in a way, terrified me," she said.

"I was hoping that some member would initiate an official investigation, because the fact that the visible head of such a company would allow himself to mentally mistreat a person who is suffering from a war is unprecedented."

Tsurenko has been absent from the tour since the 2024 BJK Cup Finals, where she represented Ukraine.

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