Star Darja Kasatkinová is already Australian, Anastasia Potapova is newly Austrian.
Jelena Rybakinová collects big titles under the flag of Kazakhstan. The same country is represented by Alexander Bublik, a player from the world’s elite 20, or another Russian native and Potapova’s husband, Alexander Shevchenko.
Varvara Gračeva plays for France, Kamila Rachimova and Maria Timofeeva for Uzbekistan.
The number of tennis “emigrants” from the country, which cannot use its flag in the tennis world after the military attack on Ukraine, is still growing.
The long-time head of Russian tennis, Shamil Tarpishchev, had to reassure the public because of this. Fears that Russia will lose Daniil Medvedev, Andrei Rublev or the silver heroines from the Olympics in Paris – albeit in neutral colors – Mirra Andrejevova and Diana Shnejderova, are growing dramatically.
Tarpišchev himself greatly incited them when he defeatedly declared last month: “We don’t organize tournaments, we don’t play leagues, so we don’t even have money to support tennis players. A lot of players are already playing abroad and others will follow them.”
Now he had to put it into reverse. “That Mirra and Diana would leave? No, I’m not afraid of that. That won’t happen,” he responded to the Championat website. Potapova’s departure trivialized and lowered the importance of the currently 50th ranked player in the world.
Eighteen-year-old Andrejeva and twenty-one-year-old Shnejder are considered tennis prodigies in Russia. Both have already made it high in the rankings, the first named fifth, the second eleventh.
In the past, Andreyeva has been criticized in the Western world for repeatedly expressing support for Vladimir Putin on Instagram.
“Imagine that I have 1,070 tennis players playing abroad. They are like soldiers! And we have 350 of them in our national teams. The rest is up to you,” added Tarpišchev, somewhat out of context.
A native of Moscow, he was the personal coach and sports advisor of the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, and his cooperation with the state continued even in the Putin era.
In 2008, he received a state award for services to the homeland, and seven years ago, Putin also awarded him for “a great contribution to the development of physical culture and sports and many years of conscientious work”.
In the meantime, Ukrainian tennis player Oleksandra Olijnyková leaned against Andreyeva and Šnajderová.
“The neutrality of Russian tennis players and tennis players should be checked. Many of them support the war. Many think that it is enough if they cannot have the flag, but this is not the case,” said the player, who saw a significant shift this year and advanced to the top 100.
She specifically focused on her two Russian rivals and pointed out that both of them received orders from Putin after their Olympic success.
“Even if they don’t have a flag, they can play without restrictions. They both received an award from Putin, it should be talked about more. It’s a big problem because they both get global recognition while supporting the Russian government,” Olijnyková added.
The 24-year-old native of Kyiv is very active on the topic, even running a website that aims to raise awareness about the war in Ukraine.
