Just a little bit left before the start of the first Grand Slam tournament of the new season. Already on January 16, the strongest tennis players will start in Melbourne at the Australian Open. There are many players from Russia among the participants and even favorites.

Due to the decision of international tennis bosses, the flag or the name of our country cannot be found in the protocols of major competitions now. However, the organizers of the Australian Open did not follow the bans and unexpectedly returned the country to the Russians!

The only pity is that this is not a strong-willed decision, but only a consequence of anti-Russian clowning.

Neutral tennis players from Russia

Since March 1, the life of Russian players has changed radically. The Russian Tennis Federation was deprived of membership in the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Russian athletes were forbidden to participate in international team competitions, and in individual competitions they could perform without a flag and an anthem. As a result, our players are no longer eligible to compete in the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, where national teams compete.

ATP and WTA allowed our tennis players to participate in individual tournaments in a neutral status, without the use of the Russian flag, anthem and other national symbols. Grand Slam tournaments also allow the participation of Russians in a neutral status. And the organizers of Wimbledon, who suspended our athletes, paid with the fact that the tournament participants did not receive rating points for their performances, which lowered the status of the competition.

Australian Open / Photo: © Clive Brunskill / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Australian surprise

For almost a whole year, our tennis players perform without a flag or a mention of the country. It was all the more unexpected to see the tournament grid on the official website of the Australian Open, where citizenship is indicated opposite the names of our tennis players. The error crept into the printed version of the grid.

Of course, this is a technical error of the organizers, from which no one is immune. But it all looks as funny as possible, given the huge efforts of international federations that have been trying all this time to get rid of everything Russian.

As long as the organizers and leaders of the federations pretend that some athletes came from outer space or just came from nowhere, such uncomfortable “jambs” will definitely happen. After all, everyone, including the drawers, knows perfectly well what country Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova and other strong tennis players are from.

It remains to be hoped that our tennis players will give many reasons to remember them more often during the upcoming tournament.