WTA removes Russian flags from live broadcasts as Russia continues its attack on Ukraine


WTA removes Russian flags from live broadcasts as Russia continues its attack on Ukraine

WTA Chief Steve Simon takes small steps towards showing support to Ukraine

WTA has finally taken some steps towards showing its disapproval towards Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine and cause havoc for the Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Tennis Federation has already submitted a request to suspend the Russian and Belarusian players and tennis federation for the foreseeable future amidst the war.

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While governing bodies of other sports have taken some action towards scheduling events in Russia, the ITF so far has just cancelled the Challenger tournaments in Russia and are yet to react to the plea of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation. Former World No. 3 and Tokyo Olympics Bronze medallist Elina Svitolina has also asked for more steps from the tennis community in showing support to Ukraine.

While the ATP and WTA Tour have not made any formal announcements, the WTA seems to have started with little movements in reaction to the Russian aggression. During the ongoing 2022 Monterrey Open, in the match between Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo and Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova, the flag beside Kamilla’s name was removed from the live broadcast.

WTA restores Russian flags and abbreviation having removed it for a little while

WTA chief Steve Simon
WTA chief Steve Simon

Prior to the broadcast action, the WTA had removed the Russian flags from the rankings page as well and also removed the ‘RUS’ abbreviations from all the Russian players. The thing was however restored to normal after a few hours but it was enough to show a sign on what course is the WTA thinking currently.

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As for the Russian Tennis Federation, they have refused to comment their viewpoint on Ukraine asking the ITF to ban them saying they did expect a request to be made but would refrain from making any comment whatsoever. Russian coach Shamil Tarpischev however had some comments to offer over the issue.

While the WTA has still shown some steps and actions towards showing their disapproval of Russia’s decision to rage the war against Ukraine, the ATP Tour as always continues to remain quiet on the issue as they did during the Peng Shuai case as well as the recent violent actions of Alexander Zverev where the German player abused the chair umpire and then hit his racquet on his stand narrowly missing his feet.

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