Russian exhibition featuring Davydenko, Karatsev, Kuznetsova and Putintseva receives widespread criticism

A Russian tennis exhibition that will be held in Saint Petersburg from December 1st to December 4th garnered widespread criticism.

The exhibition event named Trophies of Northern Palmyra 2022 will consist of six teams competing for four days and is organized by the seam company that organizes a couple of tennis events in Russia. The events were suspended from the calendar due to the War in Ukraine.

It's an event that has been announced much earlier this year in response to the suspension of events. Initial claims were that many big players would take place and while there are players there that are not Russian, most of them would not qualify as big names.

Players taking part in the event are Aslan Karatsev, Nikolay Davydenko, Evgeny Donskoy, Anastasia Potapova, Anastasia Gasanova, Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Vesnina, Kamilla Rakhimova and Vitalia Diatchenko.

Non-Russian players include Yulia Putintseva who is Russian by birth, Spaniard Pedro Martinez, Serbians Viktor Troicki, Laslo Djere and Janko Tipsarevic, and Hungarian tennis players Marton Fucsovics and Anna Bondar.

Tennis fans around the world bashed the players and the event and we bring you some reactions:

“They should think again about this. An exho in Russia while that country is waging war on Ukraine is a very bad look and they are damaging their careers by taking part."

“I would never feel safe being in that country during wartime. We are currently at nuclear threat level Defcon 3 for nuclear war."

“this is TERRIBLE. the fact that davydenko, is originally from ukraine but declares himself russian is pathetic. i wonder what all of those kaRATsev fans are gonna say, if they are gonna defend him. i hate this, shame on everyone playing at this."