Adrian Mannarino and Roberto Bautista Agut have come out publicly to rebuff any ill intention associated with participating in a Russian exhibition tennis event last month.
In December, Gazprom, a multi-billion dollar oil and gas company, sponsored an exhibition tennis tournament where a host of ATP and WTA players, current and retired, were invited to play in the Russian port city of St. Petersburg.
Unsurprisingly, most of the players who signed up were Russian nationals. But those with different nationalities came under fire from the tennis fraternity because it happened against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Two of those players who made the trip to St. Petersburg were Adrian Mannarino of France and Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain. Mannarino, 35, has redefined the word late bloomer after breaking the world's Top 20 at the start of the 2024 season.
Bautista Agut, also 35, was once the ATP's workhorse but has been struggling with fitness and is currently ranked a low of 72 ahead of this year's Australian Open.
Disturbing information from the internet emerged about the financiers of the tournament, Gazprom, as alleged by an account on X (formerly Twitter) by the name Ukrainian Tennis BTU.
Ukrainian tennis player Lesia Tsurenko revealed she tried to privately contact some of the players who accepted the invite not to participate in the event and succeeded in changing Jasmine Paolini's heart, who was among the players who signed up to play.
Although the ATP and WTA have unanimously agreed not to stage any tennis tournament in Russia amid the ongoing war, they don't restrict players from playing there. They also confirmed that they won't sanction those who played at the December exhibition.
Frenchman Mannarino disclosed that he had "no contact" with Tsurenko about pulling out from the event and clarified his stance that he was not affiliated with any political parties.
"I’m a professional tennis player. I’m not into politics or anything. I just went there. I did my job. That’s what I did. I’m not supporting anything. That was a private event. That was not anything about political support. There’s nothing to talk about."
Bautista Agut, for his part, explained that he was seeking to accumulate sufficient minutes on the court after missing almost three months in the second half of 2023 due to injury.
"I just wanted to keep playing as many matches as possible and that’s why I went there to play."
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