"My dad built part of the stadium for this team": Potapova defends choice to wear Spartak Moscow jersey amid WTA formal warning

Anatasia Potapova still doesn't see anything wrong in her wearing a Spartak Moscow jersey to the tennis court despite the Tours forbidding Russian players anything that associates with their country.

Tennis would like to stay neutral out of politics which is why they forbade Russian players to display anything associating them with Russia after the invasion. The decision came after heavy pressure from all sides on the sport to do something after the war break out. Sending them was not realistic nor the right thing to do but limiting visuals related to Russia seemed like a good idea.

Potapova broke that rule when she wore a Russian jersey to the court which created a lot of controversies. Iga Swiatek felt compelled to speak up explaining that she couldn't understand how she was permitted to do that which was an indirect message to the Tours who weren't enforcing the rule strictly. Potapova did a similar thing in Dubai weeks prior although that was during practice and nobody did anything.

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She still defends her decision saying it's not a provocation:

“It's very sad that people seeing things that isn't actually the truth. I'm just super fan of Spartak since I was 10 years old. My dad built part of the stadium for this team, so it's our family thing. We were surprised but whatever. It's as I said, people are seeing what they only want to see.”