The organization of the US Open made the decision to separate the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka from the exhibition tournament for Ukraine that has been held prior to the start of the last Grand Slam of the year.
female draw
This week the US Open started with its qualifying round to define the players that will be part of the final table. This tournament marks the end of the Grand Slams In the season. But within the framework of this beginning, it also aroused controversy after the exclusion of Victoria Azarenka of the exhibition that was played this Wednesday in New York.
The organization of the US Open decided to carry out this exhibition, and other various measures, in order to raise funds to help Ukraine before the situation that lives by the war with Russia. The party for the benefit of the European country included Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff. Victoria Azarenka was supposed to have been too. However, on the same day that this match would take place, the organization announced its decision not to contemplate the Belarusian.
The decision
“In the last 24 hours, after much consideration and dialogue, Victoria Azarenka will not participate in today’s exhibition tournament. She is a great player and we appreciate her willingness to participate in it. Given the sensitivity of the Ukrainian players and the ongoing conflict, we believe this is the right thing to do.”
And it is that when the presence of Azarenka was announced, Ukrainian tennis players like Marta Kostiuk and Lesia Tsurenko They protested against their participation.
“We rejected the exhibition after the organizers did not ask us if we felt comfortable with Azarenka’s participation”the tennis players mentioned at the time, leading to the decision of the US Open to exclude the Belarusian from the exhibition held this Wednesday.
In principle, the US Open contemplated following in the footsteps of Wimbledon and prevent the participation of Russian and Belarusian tennis players. Instead they finally decided to adopt other measures that would not exclude these players from competing in the last Grand Slam of the year. In this way, the US Open excludes Azarenka from the exhibition that is going to be played.
