The WTA was hoping to keep the politics out of the sport yet it's blowing up in their face after a few poor choices.
Tennis as a sport generally prefers to keep things calm and civil as they are very picky about the image they want the world to see. While not without problems the sport likes to portray itself as a sport with no problems however it's not been going that well lately.
The tensions between Russian and Ukrainian players continue to split the locker room and more and more players are getting involved. It doesn't really sound good when your own players accuse you of backing one side more than the other and it's not a baseless claim either.
Players like Iga Swiatek and Petra Kvitova have both expressed the opinion that players from Russia and Belarus should be excluded from events with former player Svetlana Kuznetsova responding to that. She wrote an article where she talked about Kvitova.
It is clear that the Czechs are very opposed to the Russian people. There is now propaganda and Russophobia all over the world. However, I believe that athletes should not get involved in this. They just have to play tennis.
Kuznetsova spoke out in favour of her colleagues believing that sport and politics should be separate even though they never really were. Kuznetsova doesn't think it's fair bringing up this war because there were plenty in the past with other countries involved. It's certainly something that is debatable however it remains a complicated topic.
I understand if politicians play tennis, but ATP and WTA try to keep this sport away from politics. And if we start this topic, let's talk about all the wars that have taken place for almost the whole modern period in various countries and their consequences for sport.
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