Iga Swiatek feels tennis should have banned Russians similar to German athletes post-World War 2

Iga Swiatek wishes tennis had imposed a blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian players after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February last year, much like the one imposed on players from Germany, Italy and Japan in the aftermatch of the second World War.

Speaking to the BBC in a recent interview, the World No. 1 wondered if such a strong statement would have shown the Russian government that its continued oppression was "not worth it" and forced it to seek more peaceful options.

Swiatek admitted that athletes were just a "little piece" in the grand scheme of things, but with sports always being part of propaganda measures, the Pole did not think it was out of the question.

While the 21-year-old maintained that tennis could have done a lot more in the beginning, she did not think it would be fair to implement such measures now, so long after the start of the war.

"I heard that after World War Two, German players were not allowed as well as Japanese and Italian, and I feel like this kind of thing would show the Russian government that maybe it's not worth it," Iga Swiatek said. "I know it's a small thing because we are just athletes, a little piece in the world, but I feel like sport is pretty important and sport has always been used in propaganda."

"This is something that was considered at the beginning, tennis didn't really go that way, but now it would be pretty unfair for Russian and Belarusian players to do that because this decision was supposed to be made a year ago," she added.

The three-time Grand Slam champion further revealed that the atmosphere in the locker room is "pretty intense" these days due to the Russia-Ukraine war, further strengthening her assessment that stronger action to start with would have helped show everybody that all tennis players were against the war.

"I feel like tennis, from the beginning, could do a bit better in showing everybody that tennis players are against the war," Swiatek said. "I feel they could do more to make that point and tell their views, and help us cope a bit better in the locker room because the atmosphere there is pretty tense."

It's hard for Russian players to speak out loud about the war: Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek at the BNP Paribas Open

At the same time, Iga Swiatek made it clear that Russian and Belarusian tennis players should not be held personally accountable for the war.

"It's not their fault they have a passport like that but, on the other hand, we all have some kind of impact and I feel like anything that would help stop the Russian aggression, we should go that way in terms of the decisions the federations are making. It's easy to say that but when you're facing people face-to-face it's a little bit different," Swiatek said.

Swiatek was particularly impressed with Daria Kasatkina for being outspoken against her home country's aggression, as she put herself in danger and in the midst of a rather complicated situation to express her views freely.

"I did shake hands, for example, with Daria Kasatkina - she openly said that she's against the war at the beginning and it would be her dream for the war to finish. I really respect that because I feel it's brave for Russian athletes to say that because their situation is pretty complicated and sometimes it's hard for them to speak out loud about it," Iga Swiatek said.