Alexandr Dolgopolov, a famous Ukrainian tennis player once ranked 13th in the world, just joined the army and immediately went to the front line after undergoing a short military training course.

Dolgopolov was a former world number 13. After successfully taking his family to neighboring countries to flee, he returned to Kiev to join the forces protecting Ukrainian territory. During the recent short-term military training course, Dolgopolov successfully completed tests on how to use weapons.

In fact, Dolgopolov also admitted before that he was “used to using guns” because he often went hunting with his father when he was young. Dolgopolov is the second famous Ukrainian tennis player to voluntarily compete. Before that was Sergiy Stakhovsky. This former ATP Tours champion joined the self-defense militia to protect the city.

Dolgopolov is one of the best male tennis players in Ukraine’s history. During his career, he was crowned 3 times in different large and small tournaments. The highest position this 33-year-old former star has is 13th on the ATP rankings in 2012.

But realizing that his career could no longer develop, he soon retired in 2021 and his last match took place against Novak Djokovic.

At this time, people called Dolgopolov a “true soldier”. In an interview with the BBC, Dolgopolov asked the ATP to “ban all Russian players from competing during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

“I know all these people,” he said. I even played against Medvedev. No offense, but I think Russia should be banned from any sport.

They said as long as they stay neutral they’ll get to play, but we all know it doesn’t change anything. Even sanctions are not enough to stop what is happening in Ukraine.

I don’t think that just declaring anti-war is enough. Not only in tennis, even at the Oscars, people also heard chants of protest everywhere. Yes, that’s fine, but did they come to ask Ukraine about the real feelings of its women and children?”