The Australian Open prohibits the Russian and Belarusian flags in matches.
This decision by Tennis Australia in the middle of the competition arises after an incident in the match between the Russian tennis player Kamila Rakhimova and the Ukrainian tennis player Kateryna Baindl. During the match, a group of four attendees hung a Russian flag on a hedge, an act that Ukrainian fans called a provocation.
The Ukrainian ambassador in Melbourne, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, expressed his outrage at the tennis federation, which led to the ban on the Russian and Belarusian flags.
As in the rest of the tournaments on the circuit, athletes from these countries must compete without a flag, under a neutral emblem and independently. But this was a ban that had not yet been applied to attendees.
