INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The message was conveyed in small letters printed unevenly but defiantly on the side of Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya's right shoe. NO WAR, the words said in black ink that stood out starkly against a bubblegum-pink background.
The message came across loud and clear when Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, who had spent two nights in an underground parking garage in her hometown of Odessa to escape Russian attacks before her parents sent her and her younger sister Ivanna to safety in France, had a Ukraine flag draped around her shoulders when she walked out to the court at Stadium 1 for her first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday.
"You still have a lot of thoughts about it. You still think a lot about it," said Yastremska, who arranged the flag around her shoulders again as she left the court after Caroline Garcia outlasted her 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-5.
