Pivovarova considers Gracheva’s change of citizenship a big loss for Russian tennis

The former second racket of the world among juniors, Anastasia Pivovarova, told Gazeta.Ru that she would support Varvara Gracheva, despite her decision to change sports citizenship, and also called her departure from the Russian team a big loss for domestic tennis.

Gracheva, whose transition to sports citizenship of France was recorded by the WTA, won the day before in her debut match under the new flag. In the first round of the tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, the ex-Russian beat the representative of Romania, Jacqueline Christian, in two sets in less than an hour.

Of course, this is a big loss. I always say that any player is very valuable for his country. It doesn’t matter what place he occupies in the ranking. Everyone has the opportunity to break into the top,” Pivovarova said. — There have already been quite a few examples when, even at the age of 30, players showed their best results, and someone showed himself in doubles and even in mixed doubles. Therefore, I believe that all players should be valued. Any loss is undesirable for Russian tennis.

The ex-second racket of the world said that she would continue to support Gracheva under the French flag.

I wish good luck to Barbara. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision for her. All the same, we will cheer for her and support her as our tennis player. But, unfortunately, the circumstances were such that she changed her citizenship and will now compete under a different flag,” Pivovarova said.

Gracheva has been training in Cannes since 2016 and has lived in France for seven years. She has won seven titles in International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments.