Top seed Elina Svitolina, a 27-year-old tennis pro from Ukraine, said she would withdraw from the Monterrey Open rather than play her Russian opponent at the Mexico Championship unless the tennis federation follows suit. The leadership of the IOC and through Russia and Belarus are only known as “neutral athletes”.
Svitolina tweeted on Monday that she does not want to play in the first-round match with Anastasia Potapova “or any other match with a Russian or Belarusian tennis player until the ‘WTA Women’s Tour’” The tournament, the ATP Men’s Tour and the International Tennis Federation ‘follow the advice of the International Olympic Committee’ and prohibit competitors from these countries from using national symbols, colours, flags or national anthems.
“They have no responsibility for invading our homeland.” Svitolina, a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist and 16 career tour singles champion, dropped to No. 3 and is currently No. 15.
Another tennis player from Ukraine, Lesia Tsurenko, 32, tweeted that she and others “wanted to express our great surprise and dissatisfaction with the lack of response to the situation in our home country.”
Tsurenko, a quarter-finalist at the 2018 U.S. Open who dropped to 23rd this week to 127th, called on the WTA to immediately condemn the Russian government.
The ITF said it had canceled events in Russia “indefinitely” and had no plans to host events in Belarus this year. It also postponed an event in Ukraine that had been scheduled for April, citing “increasing security concerns.”
“This is a rapidly evolving situation. We are constantly monitoring the incident and maintaining active discussions with the ITF tennis family, the ITF Executive Committee and security experts to decide and coordinate our next steps. We stand with the people of Ukraine,” The ITF said in a statement released Monday.
“At this time, our priority remains the safety of everyone attending our events. We will of course provide more information as soon as possible.” The WTA and ATP did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.
Complete News Source : The Indian Express
