Tennis
War in Ukraine, Kostyuk: “We urge WTA to remove Russian tournaments”
Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk criticized the WTA’s silence on what was happening in her country in a Twitter message and called for the tour tournaments held in Russia to be canceled.
The state of war in Ukraine and the WTA’s decision not to comment on the issue prompted Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk (No. 54 in the world rankings) to tweet her own message, demanding the removal of the tournaments in Russia.
As he characteristically noted, while in the case of Swai Peng it suspended the tournament being held in China, the WTA took a stand on racism issues, but did not do the same for Russia.
“We, the Ukrainian athletes, would like to express our surprise and frustration at the lack of a response from the WTA to what is happening in our country. Our country is under attack.
We demand from WTA immediately condemn the Russian government and withdraw their tournaments in Russia and the USA International Tennis Federation do the same. I say this with the full support of my colleagues in Russia. Stop the war, stop Russian aggression, bring peace to our homes. be human. ”
Kostyuk’s post followed Svitolina’s post a day earlier (28/2), with her compatriot stating in a post that she would not be competing against a Russian or Belarusian athlete. “I believe that the current situation requires a clear position from our organizations: the ATP, the WTA and the ITF.” Significantly, Svitolina had said.
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