Once again, the Russian invasion of Ukraine takes center stage in the world of sports. This time in a tennis match, specifically in the final of the Négométal Open Bourg de Peage, an exhibition tournament that was held this week in France.
Kostyuk refuses to play the final against a Russian
In the women’s match, the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk and the 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva had to face each other, one of the great revelations of the 2023 season. However, minutes before the match Kostyuk gave up competing against Andreeva (57 in the world) , which made the organization have to quickly look for a replacement for the Russian player.
The organization replaced her… with a male tennis player
Finally, the tournament organizers made the decision to hold the match between Andreeva and the French tennis player Yanis Ghazouani Durand, number 1,145 in the ATP ranking (although this week he rose to 845) and who had already played a match in the men’s draw on Friday against Arthur Rinderknech.
A match in which Andreeva was overwhelmed by the entire situation surrounding the match and where the Russian tennis player made several errors that were taken advantage of by Yanis Ghazouani Durand, who in just an hour and a quarter took the victory 7-5 and 6. -2 in a surreal episode in the world of tennis. But, the most surreal thing of all is that the Russian took the trophy despite having lost the match.
2023-12-18 15:10:24
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