Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk says the WTA Tour has ignored a request for a gathering with gamers from the war-torn nation within the newest indicators of the conflict-related tensions in ladies’s tennis.
Kostyuk, cheered on by Ukrainian followers seated behind nationwide flags, was overwhelmed by Russian Anastasia Potapova on the Miami Open on Thursday and left the courtroom with out shaking the hand of her opponent.
Speaking to reporters after the loss, Kostyuk opened up in regards to the frustration she and different Ukrainian gamers are feeling.
Her compatriot, Lesia Tsurenko, had stated earlier this month that the gamers had requested for a gathering after she pulled out of Indian Wells forward of a conflict with Aryna Sabelenka of Belarus.
Kostyuk stated the request had thus far been ignored.
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“Yes, we wished to have the assembly with the board and we didn’t get one. No reply, nothing, simply silence,” she advised reporters.
The WTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
Kostyuk said she did not want to go into details about the issues that the players wished to discuss.
“I mean, once we’re in the meeting we can talk about it. Before the meeting, I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about what we want to talk about there,” she stated.
Potapova acquired a proper warning from the WTA after carrying a Spartak Moscow soccer shirt earlier than a match in Indian Wells and Kostyuk didn’t seem impressed by that response.
“There are quite a lot of issues that I don’t agree with that WTA is doing. This not going to alter something,” she said.
“I’ll just get more hate online. Whatever I say, I will get a lot of hate. I don’t know. Warning, whatever. You give her a warning… You can suspend someone, I don’t know. I can’t comment on that really, it’s just funny,” she stated.
Tsurenko’s coach, Nikita Vlasov, has been extremely important of the WTA in feedback reported by Ukrainian web sites and world primary Iga Swiatek of Poland has referred to as for extra to be carried out.
“I really feel extra must be carried out to assist Ukrainian gamers as a result of all the pieces we focus on in tennis is about Belarusian and Russian gamers,” she said.
There is tension
On Tuesday Sabalenka said she had faced “hate” within the locker room and recommended she had been in a row with Vlasov.
Asked about tensions, the 20-year-old Kostyuk stated she had not been concerned in any incidents however stated there was an apparent actuality.
“I may not say, ‘Hi,’ to some gamers, however I by no means approached anybody, by no means talked to anybody. Maybe I personally unfold hate simply by being there,” she said.
“I don’t know what people come up with. Obviously, there is tension, we’re not friends, we’re at war at the moment.”
Kostyuk, ranked thirty eighth on the earth, received her first WTA title earlier this month, beating Russian Varvara Gracheva on the ATX Open in Austin.
Asked whether or not she was capable of block out ideas of struggle when she was on courtroom, Kostyuk stated:
“It will depend on the day. I by no means know. I can suppose what I need to suppose, I can do what I can do, however the second I step out on the courtroom I don’t know what I’m going to get out of myself,” she said, adding that she did try to avoid news ahead of games.
“I think it’s just healthy to avoid any kind of news because mostly for the past year most of the news I receive are horrible and bad.
“I think it’s drowning to just read the news overall no matter what it is about.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed)
