Ex-Russian tennis prodigy explains why she joined OnlyFans
A Russian tennis player who won the 2015 Wimbledon junior tournament and had all the hallmarks of an up-and-coming sports star, offered a rare glimpse into the reasons why she dropped out of world-class sports, instead opting for a business career and even creating an OnlyFans account.
In an interview with Sports.ru released on Friday, Sofya Zhuk, 23, insisted she would never return to tennis after retiring in 2019, explaining that her early years were marred not only by immense physical stress, but also mental breakdowns.
Zhuk said she could have continued with tennis, “if I hadn’t experienced such pressure from my family, parents” who pushed her to achieve greatness in the sport – unlike other players her age that did not have to deal with so much pressure and were able to lead mostly normal lives.
I was accompanied by my mother 24/7. I cried because of this, I was freaking out due to fatigue, I locked myself in the bathroom just to be alone. At tournaments, my mother stood at the locker room entrance so I would not spend more than ten minutes there.
After becoming fed up with the routine, she quit tennis upon coming of age. After getting married, Zhuk opened a car rental business with her husband while running several other ventures. The intense workload involved in the rental business, however, took a toll on her health, resulting in pancreatitis.
The ex-tennis star also confirmed rumors that she had opened an account on OnlyFans, an adult subscription website, but said she never intended to produce any explicit or pornographic content.
“To be honest, I just became curious how much one could earn there in a week without uploading any nude and depraved content… My husband and I just became interested,” Zhuk said, adding that she had made $4,500 in just five days.
She said she was surprised by the results, but lost interest and eventually stopped uploading.
During her short tennis career, Zhuk won the 2015 Wimbledon girls singles title and six International Tennis Federation tournaments. Now, in addition to her business activities, she has an Instagram account with more than 168,000 subscribers.
