"It was stressful and intense": Dayana Yastremska reveals she was nearly deported from US before start of Indian Wells

Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska has revealed that she was nearly deported from the US after being landed to take part in the WTA 1000 event in Indian Wells. The 24-year-old’s journey in the competition ended in the third round as she lost to world number two Poland’s Iga Swiatek in straight sets with a score of 6-0, 6-2.

Yastremska was recently quoted in a report about an interesting incident that nearly led to her deportation from the US. The Odesa-born star stated that she was in danger of being deported after someone reported that her passport and visa were lost to Interpol.

That news proved to be a wrong one as Yastremska ended up receiving a document which would allow her to stay in the United States for another six months. The reigning world number 46 called the incident ‘straight out of a movie’.

"I was flying from Nice to San Francisco via Istanbul,” she said. “When I landed, they immediately wanted to deport me back to Ukraine. Apparently, someone had officially reported to US authorities through Interpol that my passport and visa were lost. But that was completely false—my passport was right there in my hands and had never been missing. I spent four hours at airport immigration, waiting anxiously to see what would happen next.

"According to US law, if a passport is marked as lost in the system, the associated visa becomes automatically invalid. They stamped my visa as canceled, and honestly, at that moment I thought, 'That's it—I'm done, heading back home,'" Yastremska laughed. "Even though my visa was actually valid for another two years. After four tense hours, they gave me a document allowing me to stay in the US for six months, after which I'd need to renew my visa. It was stressful and intense—straight out of a movie."