Only Roland Garros towel left, says Ukraine tennis player after Russian strike hits flat
Dayana Yastremska says her flat took a "direct hit" by a Russian missile in Odesa, and all that left was her Roland Garros towel.
Only Roland Garros towel left, says Ukraine tennis player after Russian strike hits flat
Dayana Yastremska said her family's apartment was destroyed in "a direct hit by a Kalibr cruise missile" fired by Russia
Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska has said her family's flat was destroyed in a Russian air strike on the Black Sea port of Odesa.
"This is what the 'Russian world' looks like. A direct hit by a Kalibr cruise missile," she wrote on social media, alongside a photo of a burning multi-storey residential building.
"The only thing that survived was a Roland Garros... towel," the 26-year-old added, posting an image of a famous clay orange towel from Paris's Grand Slam tournament hanging from the wreckage.
Odesa regional head Oleh Kiper said 37 people were injured, including a baby, and two were missing in the missile and drone attack on Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk on Friday night.
"A Russian missile destroyed our apartment in Odesa... SYMBOLIC. A piece of world tennis survived a Russian missile. Our home did not," Yastremska wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
"@wta @itf_reviews Look at these images through our eyes," she said, referring to the governing bodies of world tennis - the Women's Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation.
Yastremska - who reached the semifinal stage of the Australian Open in 2024 - is currently 113th in the women's world singles rankings.
It is not the first time Ukrainian athletes' homes have been hit by Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Last year, Ukraine international football midfielder Heorhiy Sudakov said his flat in the capital Kyiv had been severely damaged by a Russian drone while his wife and child were at home.
Dayana Yastremska competed at this year's US Open in New York, losing in the first round.