Gracheva’s departure to France is not a loss for Russian tennis, Chesnokov said

Davis Cup finalist Andrey Chesnokov believes that no one can blame the Russian tennis player Varvara Gracheva for wanting to obtain French citizenship.

The French Tennis Federation previously told Match TV that Gracheva had applied for sports citizenship of the country. The Russian has been training in Cannes since 2016 and has been living in France for seven years.

— I know Varvara Gracheva. She is a very nice and pleasant girl who never caused negative emotions. Barbara made the most difficult decision for herself to become a citizen of France and represent this state. Some will call her a traitor. But I don’t think so. No one has the right to condemn her for this decision.

Another question is whether the change of citizenship is Grachev’s loss for Russian women’s tennis. I think there is nothing wrong with that, we already have enough talented tennis players. Including on the way, for example, Mirra Andreeva. And the real loss, in my opinion, was the transfer of Elena Rybakina to Kazakhstan. She is an outstanding tennis player, – said the RT expert.

Gracheva is ranked 41st in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking, this is her highest position in her career. She has won seven tournaments at International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments.

• Tennis player Gracheva said that she was not contacted from Russia about obtaining French citizenship