He once dueled with Federer and Djokovic, defeated Nadal. Ex-tennis professional Oleksandr Dolhopolow now defends his home country against Russia in the war.
With his opponents he once fought a sporting competition, now he is about life and death every day. The former Ukrainian tennis professional Oleksandr Dolhopolow has been fighting against Russia for three years, defending his home country. He reported voluntarily.
The 36-year-old, who made it into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, except for world ranking position 13 and 2011, now gave the “Spiegel” a detailed and remarkable telephone interview. He waived a video call for safety’s sake. He wanted to keep his exact whereabouts secret. In conversation, he describes the oppressive everyday life near the front and how radically his life has changed.
When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, Dolhopolow was with his family on vacation in Turkey. It was immediately clear to him that he wanted to help his country: “My conscience drove me, told me: You have to do this now. Only I had no idea about weapons. So I was looking for the next shooting range near Antalya. “
“I’m happy to be able to defend my country”
“Basically, I’m happy to be able to defend my country,” says Dolhopolow, who at the same time wants “nothing more than peace”. He lacks the “inner peace and a day without a message about killed children, civilians, comrades.”
The determined ex-tennis professional could no longer be dissuaded from his family from his project. “I bought a rifle of the AR-15 rifle, plus camouflage and a protective vest and joined a few friends who were already serving in Cherson,” said Dolhopolow, who is used as a drone pilot and experienced fear of death a year and a half.
He remembers: “In late summer 2023 my unity was in the Saporischschja region. We took drone shots of terrain when we were suddenly shot at. We jumped into a trench, but the strokes came closer and closer. Knowledge: If grenades of this size strike less than eight meters away from you, the intestines can shred you. “
Dolhopolow continued: “In the end we only hoped that it would not be caught, we were afraid. After about 20 strokes it stopped. Already wrong if I think about it afterwards.”
Then he had to go to the hospital for a week. The pressure waves of the explosions had caused a concussion and severe headache and earache.
He finds moving words about the fear of being wounded or killed: “Honorously, I am afraid of being hurt and having to live as a disability. If I could choose it, I would rather be dead.”
According to him, his previous life as a tennis professional benefits him in the war: “Tennis prepared me for the war. The skills that you need as a athlete and soldier are similar: you have to react quickly, concentrate and quickly focus on new situations can adjust. “
That is why he considers tennis and war to be comparable: “On the pitch you fight for victories, on the battlefield for your life. You sweat, you spend yourself, you hurt yourself. Is war -physically harder to say. The psyche. He lost “no 100” comrades, says Dolhopolow. “But people with whom I worked closely and whom I liked.”
“I wish no one” this experience “
That creates a feeling of revenge. “You feel emptiness and anger on the opponent. You want to work better, take revenge, kill the enemy. Only that does not bring the lost men back. And the longer the war lasts, the more people die.”