In 2013, he defeated defending champion Roger Federer at Wimbledon, achieving one of the biggest blows in tennis history.
Today, Ukrainian player Sergei Stakhovsky is a volunteer fighter on a military patrol in Kyiv, whom he vows to defend “to the end” against Russian forces.
Now 36, he looks a lot like the 116th-ranked Travellersman in the world spreading his tennis whites on the Holiday London turf after knocking Federer in the second round nine years ago.
But his outfit could not be more different as he patrolled Maidan Square, a symbol of Ukraine’s “fight for democracy”, wearing a Kalashnikov, a pistol in his belt and his 1.93 m (6 ft) clad in khaki camouflage. ft 4 in) frame. ,
“I can’t say that I feel comfortable around a rifle. I’m not sure how I would react if I shot someone,” he told AFP.
“I wish I never had to engage in these things.”
It is just over two weeks since he returned to Ukraine and signed up for the regional brigade, volunteers tasked with helping the army against the Russian offensive launched on February 24.
“I knew I had to go there”, he says.
despair and sadness
On the eve of the attack, Stakhovsky, while on vacation in Dubai with his wife and three children aged four, six and eight, hung up his racquet as a professional player after the Australian Open in January.
The next day, after seeing television images of Russian bombs falling on his homeland, he says that he was drowned in a mixture of “disappointment” and “sad”.
Most of his family still lived in Ukraine. He spent the next three days at the hotel in a haze as he tried to find shelter for people, getting information about the situation on the ground.
“I was full of adrenaline, I slept three or four hours (in total), I didn’t eat”.
Then he told his wife that he had decided to go back.
“My wife was really upset, I mean, she knew, she understood but she was really upset,” he said. But “now she understands that I really can’t do it any other way”.
heart breaking verdict
The heart-wrenching decision makes him think about his family every time.
“Leaving kids is not something I’m proud of,” he says.
“My kids don’t know I’m here, well, they know I’m not at home, but they don’t know what war is and I’m trying not to engage them. I told them I’d Come back now, it’s been 15 days now… and god knows how much more this is going to happen”.
Like all Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60, Stakhovsky is eligible for a call-up by the military and cannot leave the country when it is at war.
He says he finds the strength to go because of his countrymen, whom he has seen signing up “in the thousands”.
“If we don’t stand up, we have no country to live in,” he said.
The former tennis pro now patrols the center of Kyiv for two hours a day to protect it from possible incursions, particularly around the palace of President Volodymyr Zelensky, a hero of the resistance against Moscow.
“Listen, I’m on foot patrol here,” he added, adding that Zelensky was “remarkably brave and knows what he’s doing, and we all assume he knows what he’s doing.” Huh.”
Message from Federer, Djokovic
Sergei Stakhovsky retired from tennis after the Australian Open earlier this year (AP Photo)
People from “India to South America” have sent thousands of messages of support and asked how they can help Ukraine, Stakhovsky says.
Among them are “hundreds” of professional tennis players who haven’t forgotten their former colleague, who rose to a world ranking of 31 in 2010 and was an unofficial spokesperson for junior players.
Tennis legends have also offered their support – including the man they shocked at Wimbledon, Roger Federer himself.
“He said he wants peace soon,” the Ukrainian said, adding that Federer and his wife were trying to help Ukrainian children through their foundation.
One message that touched him in particular came from Serbian world number two Novak Djokovic.
“He lived through it when he was little, so he knows what our kids are going through. So that message from him is, I would say, heavy in terms of meaning.”
As the Russians close in on Kyiv, fearing it may face a similar fate to destroyed cities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol.
“It’s disturbing”, he said, because “they don’t care if they’re going to kill a child or military personnel, they don’t care”.