Lyudmyla Kichenok shared some unfortunate news through her social media as the Ukrainian tennis star revealed that her house in Dnipro was bombed and that a tennis complex where she used to train was completely destroyed after Russia's attacks on her hometown of Dnipro.
On Friday, Russia launched a drone attack on Dnipro, and while the majority of the drones were shot down, some still hit their targets and that resulted in a restaurant complex and several residential buildings being destroyed.
At the time of the attacks, Kichenok was in the United States and preparing for the Charleston Open. Despite being far away, the 32-year-old still felt crushed over the news.
"The house where I live in Dnipro was bombed last night Many injured and we still dont know how many dead," the 2024 US Open women's doubles winner wrote on her Instagram Story.
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Kichenok also added: "I often trained on the courts of this beautiful hotel in my hometown."
After the attacks, Ukraine announced that four were dead and 21 injured.
Kichenok was in Ukraine when the war started
In an interview from 2022, the Ukrainian tennis star shared that just two days before the war started on February 24th, she didn't believe that anything was going to happen. But when it happened, she was left absolutely petrified along with her family members.
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"For the first two hours, my whole body was shaking and it was very scary. It was some kind of terrible dream. On the 24th, we were still thinking about what to do all day, of course, no one slept," Kichenok said at the time.
In the same interview, she revealed that her family decided to hop in the car and drive to Moldova. The 32-year-old drove for 36 hours straight but her efforts paid off.
Early on, Kichenok had a very hard time focusing on tennis. While the pain is still there, she managed to achieve her career-best results over the last few years as she won the 2023 Wimbledon mixed doubles title, the 2024 US Open women's doubles title, and also achieved a career-high doubles ranking of No. 3.
