Two Ukrainian athletes have criticized the US Open for bringing in Victoria Azarenka, the world No. 22 from Belarus, for their forthcoming charity match to support the work being done in Ukraine.
After organizers failed to enquire about their comfort level with a Belarusian playing, Marta Kostyuk and Lesia Tsurenko announced they would not attend the exhibition. They also criticized Azarenka for not previously denouncing the conflict.
The US Open recently announced that they would be doing a number of actions to generate money for Ukraine's war efforts, including hosting an exhibition match a week before the start of the season's last Grand Slam with players like Rafael Nadal and Coco Gauff.
They also said that they "seriously contemplated" following Wimbledon's lead and banning Russian and Belarusian players, but decided against it because they believed it would send a stronger message to invite them to the charity match, which Azarenka accepted.
Kostyuk did not like it:
“Of course, I received an invitation. I think all our players got them" said the Ukranian adding "When Lesia Tsurenko and I found out - I'm only talking about us now, because we didn't ask anyone - so when we found out that there would be representatives of Russia or Belarus at this event, I immediately said that I will not participate in this.”
“So I don't understand why she's called, I can't understand why she's even going to do this. Knowing what kind of relationship she has with all of us. It didn't happen that she met with all of us and said, they say, girls and boys, here's 10 thousand for you, please, you know who needs to be helped. It wasn't close to that. She has no personal good relations with us.”
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