Circa 2013 saw one of the greatest upsets in Wimbledon’s history. Sergiy Stakhovsky, ranked 116 on the ATP Tour, defeated defending champion Roger Federer. It was the Swiss master’s earliest exit from the Championship in a decade. Pulling off that upset was Sergiy Stakhovsky’s biggest claim to fame as far as his tennis career was concerned.
The Ukrainian hung up his racquet in January 2022 and turned his attention to making high-rated wine in his native Zakarpattia. A month later, while in Dubai, he saw on BBC explosions hitting Kyiv. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had started. Stakhovsky decided to join the war.
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He said goodbye to his family, flew to Budapest, signed the bond in case he didn't make it back and headed for Ukraine. His friends gave him boots and a bulletproof vest, and drove him to the border. He crossed on foot.
His friends on the other side drove him to Kyiv, where he got his pistol and then a rifle, and eventually a spot in Ukraine's special forces.
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Sport, even when it is most competitive, is entertainment. War is life and death. Crawling through mud, sleeping underground and intense firefights are a little different from the serves, volleys and long rallies at Wimbledon or Roland-Garros. In Izium, Stakhovsky’s unit was ambushed while crossing a river. He escaped death by a whisker.
“When you win, beating Federer, or when I won my four singles titles (on the Tour), it's euphoria,” Stakhovsky told JP Lindsley, a journalist, in a podcast. “It's a positive emotion, (an) outburst of that positive emotion, because you know that happened. Here (in war), honestly like hitting a tank or even Russians, and killing them, doesn't give you that. Because it's not euphoria. Just a daily routine.”
Stakhovsky was a child of Glasnost and Perestroika, born in Kyiv in 1986, when Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. His father, Edward, although a doctor, wasn't affluent enough to cover the cost of his son's tennis persuasion. Last year, Sports Illustrated came up with a story on Stakhovsky, how his father, through one of his patients, managed to send him to a tennis club in the Czech Republic that would cover the costs of his tennis learning.
A 16-year-old Stakhovsky would beat Novak Djokovic on the junior circuit. At 18, he reached the US Open junior championship final, losing to Andy Murray.
Life has taken a different turn for Stakhovsky. He still teaches tennis to young kids when he is back in Kyiv. “They’re in bomb shelters in the morning, but they still practice in the afternoon, and still believe they can be great tennis players,” he says.
Stakhovsky has grown immensely popular in his country. Some even think he should be Ukraine's next ambassador to the United States.
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