The information is reported by AFP: the Women’s Professional Tennis Association (WTA) will soon meet with Ukrainian players to discuss their concerns about the war in their country, and especially the tensions with their Russian and Belarusian opponents on the circuit. The meeting in question is not spontaneous, it was decided after a formal request from several Ukrainian players. Marta Kostyuk is at the top of the list. “We wanted a meeting with the WTA board of directors, but we didn’t get it,” she explained last week in Miami, after her second-round loss to Russian Anastasia Potapova in a match that ended without the traditional handshake between the two players. No response, nothing, just silence. Anastasia Potapova (pictured above) had received a warning from the WTA the previous week for appearing on court at the Indian Wells tournament wearing a Spartak Moscow football club shirt, an attitude seen as a sign of support for her country in the current conflict. Earlier last week, Belarusian world number two Aryna Sabalenka said she felt “hatred” in the locker room, citing a run-in with a Ukrainian coach. The date of the meeting between the WTA and the Ukrainian players has not yet been decided, but it is announced by the WTA as a certainty.
