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Australian Open star's kids "think he's at another tournament" when he's at Ukraine war

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tennis pro has signed up to the Ukrainian reservist army following Russia's senseless invasion of Ukraine.Sergiy Stakhovsky has played at majors including the US and French Open, and even gained notoriety for defeating defending champion Roger Federer in the second round of Wimbledon in 2013.The Ukrainian only recently announced his retirement from the sport at the age of 36 after going out in a first round qualifying defeat to American Jeffrey John Wolf at the Australian Open in January.

But, after Valdimir Putin ordered a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the former tennis pro signed up to fight with his country’s reservists.

Sharing his story on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sergiy described his current surroundings in Kyiv as “pretty calm” aside from an air fight and one explosion.“I’m not sure whether it’s normal or not, but I guess I have to get used to it,” he reflected.The popular tennis star was asked by presenter Karthi Gnanasegaram how he felt about leaving his wife and children behind to take up arms.“Horrible,” he replied. “I think nobody should ever have that option at all.

It’s very hard for me to say how I did it, I’m still not sure actually how I did it.“I know that it is extremely hard on my wife, my kids don’t know that I’m here, they don’t understand war, they are too little to understand what's going on.”Pressed on where his children think he has gone, Sergiy responded: “That just maybe I am at another tennis tournament.

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