In the middle of July, far from the crowded beaches and endless lines of cars, the Cannes Garden Tennis Club was like a small haven of peace. Amid the palm trees and stone pines, the sound of the tennis balls mingled with the song of the cicadas. A large shaded terrace with tables and armchairs overlooked the hard turquoise clay courts. Some of them were rented by the Elite Tennis Center (ETC), an association of private coaches founded in 2012 by French player Jean-René Lisnard, once ranked 84^th in the world.

Unlike the majority of sports federations, tennis has not followed the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which advocated the banning of Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions a few days after the start of the war in Ukraine. With the exception of Wimbledon in 2022, no exclusion orders have been issued, and representatives of both countries continue to take part in tournaments under neutral banners.

The Russian residents of the private Cannes facility have therefore been able to continue practicing there. Among them, Anna Blinkova (38^th in the world) trained that morning for three hours with her ex-compatriot Varvara Gracheva (40^th), who became a naturalized French citizen at the end of May. A few days later, the two friends flew out for the North American tour, which began on July 31 in Washington DC, and ended at the US Open in New York, where they were both eliminated in the first round.

The operation of the professional tennis circuit, held up as a model by IOC president Thomas Bach, nevertheless has not escaped the tensions that have emerged from the geopolitical context, as the 2023 French Open highlighted. In March, Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko (46^th world rank) withdrew before facing Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka (2^nd) in Indian Wells, California, suffering a "panic attack." Sabalenka had spoken out about the "hate" the Ukrainian players had for her "in the locker room."

The unease on the circuit has apparently not affected the Elite Tennis Center. Here, we're told that "everyone gets along well," whatever their nationality. But the subject remains sensitive: We were instructed not to discuss the war in Ukraine with the center's Russian residents.

Born in Moscow, Blinkova and Gracheva settled in Cannes at the end of 2021 and in 2017 respectively. As early as their preteens, they were already crisscrossing Europe in search of better conditions and infrastructure. "In Russia, we play indoors for nine months of the year, so we have to make a lot of trips and spend a lot of time in traffic jams because everything isn't in the same place," Blinkova explained.

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