Tennis players were deprived of their homeland for their connection with Russia. Inhumane provocation at Roland Garros

Russian and Belarusian tennis players have long been performing at all major international competitions under a neutral flag. Everyone is used to this, especially since the ATP and WTA reacted relatively adequately to the sanctions against our country and still tried to protect the rights of athletes as much as possible, taking into account the mass insanity of the West.

However, isolated provocations and abominations still happen. This time they affected former Russian tennis players at Roland Garros, who were decided to be canceled at their place of birth.

Another attempt to spoil

Exactly a year ago, at the French Open, there was a scandal with the Belarusian world tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, who was literally hounded by Ukrainian journalists with questions about politics at press conferences. It got to the point that the athlete was forced to temporarily abandon official communication with the press, and the tournament organizers met her halfway. Although the noise continued for a long time.

This time there was hope that provocations could be avoided. After all, the Russians and Belarusians have been playing in this status for two and a half years. None of them could say or do anything new, especially before the Olympics, where Daniil Medvedev and the rest of our tennis players intend to go.

But all hopes for adequacy evaporated when, during the broadcast of the French Open, former Russian tennis players, now representing other countries, simply lost information about their place of birth. Usually, at the very beginning of the broadcast of any game at Roland Garros, the directors provide graphics with information about the athlete, which specifically indicates the place in the ranking, height, weight, age, results in 2024 and, of course, place of birth.

Varvara Gracheva / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Russophobia may soon burst like a bubble

And here the most interesting part begins. For American Sofia Kenin and Kazakhstani representative Yulia Putintseva, who were born in Moscow, these facts simply disappeared from their biography. The same goes for Varvara Gracheva, who was born in Zhukovsky in the Moscow region, who received French citizenship last year and now plays for this country. On the official website of Roland Garros, the data on these athletes is still in full, although there is a suspicion that this will not last long. Attentive “kind” viewers will probably want to look into this too.

This kind of Russophobia is amazing. After all, we are not just talking about Russian and Belarusian tennis players, but about those who have already changed their citizenship and represent other states. And this is another example of disgusting discrimination based on nationality. There’s no point in going into details here, because any adequate person can see how it all looks from the outside.

On the other hand, there is hope that this Russophobia will soon reach such an insane degree that it will be impossible to remain silent and tolerate it. After all, if desired, Russian roots can be found in half of the athletes, but for all of them it will not be possible to cancel the place of birth.