Ukrainian player Lesia Tsurenko has called for the WTA to ban Russian flags at tournaments and clarify the status of Russians and Belarusians competing as neutral athletes.
The World No. 46 commented on the issue after her defeat to neutral athlete Veronika Kudermetova at the WTA China Open in Beijing. Russian and Belarusian players have competed under a neutral status since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is supported by Belarus, in February 2022.
"As for the use of flags, the popularisation of players, pages on social networks, everything was discussed more than once," Tsurenko said, as reported by TASS, Russia’s official state news agency.
Tsurenko went on to criticize the WTA's response and accuse them of ignoring Ukrainian players.
"Unfortunately, in most cases they don’t hear us, they don’t want to hear us, this is very surprising to me. Especially when it comes to flags, because there were a lot of such situations.
"They really couldn’t completely remove the flags, because they were at tournaments and at the draw ceremonies. What can I say? This is the WTA, this explains everything," she said.
The 34-year-old also asked the WTA to clarify the details around the meaning of neutral athletes.
"It would be good if they clarified the features of this status in which the so-called neutral athletes are, what is implied," she continued.
This is not the first time that Tsurenko, who hails from Volodymyrets in Ukraine, has criticized the WTA's handling of the situation. Prior to this year's French Open, she claimed that WTA chief executive Steve Simon told her to not get upset if some of her colleagues from Russia or Belarus supported the war in her home country. She said that this comment led her to have a "panic attack".
Tsurenko also accused the WTA and International Olympic Committee of "only looking at sports from a perspective of Russian and Belarusian human rights and ignore the violations of the Ukrainians rights."
Tsurenko’s coach, Nikita Vlasov: “Our attempts to show the situation in Ukraine are blocked by WTA leadership. Last year at RG, we tried to make a presentation, to show what kind of horror is happening. Director Amelie Mauresmo approved & promised to help. Steve Simon forbade it”
