Shamil Tarpischev is not just anybody. The president of the Russian Tennis Federation, member of the International Olympic Committee and at the same time selector of the Davis Cup team until Russia was suspended due to the war in Ukrainehas come out against criticism of its player, Anastasia Potapova, for wearing a Spartak Moscow soccer team shirt before playing the third round of Indian Wells.
“Potapova’s thing is not a shield, nor a flag, but a football club. I have not heard that you cannot go out and play with a team’s shirt,” Tarpischev argued.
the belarusian Victoria Azarenka appeared several days in the central office of the Australian Open wearing the colors of PSG because of the admiration that his son feels for the French team.
Potapova argued that it is Spartak fan since I was 13 years old and that she did not intend to provoke anyone by wearing her elastic before starting the third round match of the Californian WTA 1000 with the local Jessica Pegula.
a long trajectory
Tarpischev, 75, whose power was directly linked to the figure of former president Boris Yeltsin, is the winningest captain in Davis Cup history after leading his team in 101 heats since first taking office in 1974. He surpassed the record of the Australian Neale Fraser in 2016. He raised three Salad Bowls from the bench, the last one at the Madrid Arena in the capital of Spain, in the 2021 edition.
Banned for a year by the WTA
The Russian tennis honcho was banned from any women’s tennis competition in 2014 after joking about the sex of sisters Venus and Serena Williams whom he called “siblings“He also had to pay a fine of 19,500 euros.
Stacey Allaster, then president of the women’s circuit, stated that “the statements made by Tarpischev on Russian television regarding two of the greatest athletes in the history of women’s tennis are insulting, degrading and have no place in our sport.”
The controversy always surrounds Shamil, who did not hesitate last year to point out that “We have won Wimbledon“, when Elena Rybakina won the victory on the grass of a tournament that had prohibited the presence of Russian and Belarusian tennis players.
It should be remembered that Rybakina was born in Moscow and that she later became a Kazakh national, although she continues to maintain her residence in the Russian capital because that is where her entire family lives.
Locker room tension
The Potapova chapter and her shirt was not the only protagonist in this edition of Indian Wells. The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, finalist of the tournament, saw how the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko refused to play her match with her.
In this sense, Sabalenka commented that “I’m sure it was her coach who made the decision. We had a clash last year. It is true that there is tension between the Russians and Belarusians with the Ukrainians, but I have not done anything wrong to them and neither Russian athletes”.
