In February, the International Olympic Committee recommended that Russian athletes not be allowed to participate in international competitions, and if this is still not possible, then they should be allowed to compete only in a neutral status. But Saudi Arabia, apparently, is indifferent to the recommendations of the IOC: Andrei Rublev and Daniil Medvedev are fighting on local courts under the flag of Russia. What’s there: the Saudis recorded in the Russians even … an Olympic champion from Germany.

Thomas Bach is definitely in shock!

Fix an injustice

Views of fans from all over the world in December are riveted to the Middle East. Qatar is hosting the World Cup, and Saudi Arabia is also trying to keep up with its neighbors by organizing the Diriyah Tennis Cup, a demonstration tennis tournament with a prize fund of $3 million. Among the 12 contenders for the trophy were two Russians – Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. Perhaps the organizers decided that there were not enough representatives of our country and for the company they enrolled in Russian tennis players … German citizen Alexander Zverev.

The incident happened in the semi-final confrontation of couples. Andrey Rublev and Matteo Berrettini met on the court on one side of the net, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem on the other. On the scoreboard, as is usually the case, local fans and viewers could see which country each tennis player represents.

Alexander Zverev / Photo: © Alexander Scheuber / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Next to the name Berrettini was the Italian flag. Opposite Rublev, as if there were no prohibitions for our athletes, was the Russian one. The organizers probably thought that fans from Russia this year rarely saw the flag of the country in conjunction with their athletes, and therefore such an injustice should be corrected. Zverev was also recorded as a Russian athlete. True, it is not clear for what merit the Austrian Tim turned into an Italian.

There is no excuse for the organizers in the case of Tim. But in the case of Zverev, a funny episode, probably caused by a technical failure, has some underlying reason. Sasha was born in 1997 in Hamburg and seems to have nothing to do with Russia as an athlete. His older brother Misha Zverev also represents Germany throughout his career, but was born in Moscow. Father Alexander Zverev Sr. is from Sochi, and now he was just a domestic athlete. True, in 1991, together with his family, he moved to Germany, and Russia was left without a pair of bright tennis players.

– I was born and raised in Germany, and I do not feel that I have anything to do with Russia. Of course, my parents are from there, but I feel like a 100% German. There is nothing Russian in me. I went to a German school, my friends are Germans, I hardly spoke to Russians. We have spent most of our lives in Europe. I really liked Russia, but it’s a completely foreign country,” Alexander said in the past.

The highest sporting success of Alexander Zverev Jr. is the gold of the Tokyo Olympics. In the final, he defeated the Russian Karen Khachanov, who, however, acted in the status of a neutral athlete without a tricolor. In Saudi Arabia, it is not yet possible to fight the Russians, who have the tricolor. Together with Tim, Zverev lost to Rublev and Berrettini in the semifinals. In singles, Sasha lost in the quarterfinals to Daniil Medvedev.