Marta Kostyuk declines US Open Ukraine charity invitation due to Azarenka being present

Marta Kostyuk has been the most vocal Ukrainian tennis player on the Tour regarding the country's war with Russia.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Marta Kostyuke has been a vocal supporter of her country not holding back in interviews or on social media. She criticised fellow colleagues and tennis organisations for a lack of system support and called for the exclusive of both Russian and Belarussian tennis players fully.

To support the country the US Open is staging a charity event that will benefit the victims of the war and will feature players like Nadal, Alcaraz, Fritz and Victoria Azarenka. Asked about not participating herself Kotstyuk said:

"Of course, I received an invitation. I think all our players got them. When Lesya Tsurenko and I found out - I'm only talking about us now, because we didn't ask anyone - so when we found out that there would be representatives of Russia or Belarus at this event, I immediately said that I will not participate in this."

Kostyuk was bothered by the decision to include players from those countries being present without consulting whether Ukraninan players would be okay with it:

"First of all, no one asked the Ukrainian athletes if they wanted any of these players to be present. Of course, no one is interested in this, it is the Independence Day of Ukraine, but what Ukrainians think is not interesting, is it?"

She continued:

"Secondly, I did not understand the reason why they called Victoria Azarenka. There was no open help from her in our direction. She did not communicate with me, but I know that she communicated with Serhiy Stakhovsky, with Gael Monfils in Madrid. There was no dialogue with me personally, although it cannot be said that I was invisible. Maybe I'm not that visible because I'm not ranked high enough to be talked to, but that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the fact that I've been active enough since the beginning of the war."

And finished off:

"So I don't understand why she's called, I can't understand why she's even going to do this. Knowing what kind of relationship she has with all of us. It didn't happen that she met with all of us and said, they say, girls and boys, here's 10 thousand for you, please, you know who needs to be helped. It wasn't close to that. She has no personal good relations with us,"