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.
Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska has said her family's flat has been destroyed in a Russian aerial 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, showing 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 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 in a reference to the governing bodies of world tennis - the Women's Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation.
Yastremska - who in 2024 reached the semifinal stage of the Australian Open - 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.
