The WTA wasted no time this time around, releasing a statement swiftly after the news of Russian and Belarusian players being banned from the Prague Open.
It hasn't even been a whole week since a player was banned from entering Poland, and the WTA has another problem on their hand. Fiercely committed to defending the rights of players, the Tour has now seen two counties in the span of two weeks deny entries to players from certain nationalities.
Last week, Polish authorities turned away Vera Zvonareva, who was set to participate in the Poland Open. After a small delay, the WTA released a statement on the matter addressing the issue. Fast forward a few days, and we have another ban as a Russian player was stopped from entering the Czech Republic.
The Prague Open is coming up, but Russians and Belarusian won't be taking part because the country imposed a ban on players from those countries competing on Czech soil. This time around, WTA was swift in releasing a statement. We carry it fully below.
The WTA emphatically condemns the war in Ukraine and the reprehensible actions of the Russian government. The WTA also continues to support the Tour’s Ukrainian athletes – as well as all WTA athletes – who face immense challenges as professional athletes while many of their loved ones and their country face attacks from Russia.
Individual WTA players whose nationality is Russian/Belarusian continue to compete on the Tour on a neutral basis. Despite their neutrality, some WTA players are being denied by Czech government authorities the ability to compete at the WTA 250 event scheduled to be held in Prague next week.
WTA rules state that all players must be allowed to compete on the WTA based solely on merit, without discrimination. We will continue to review the situation as we factor important considerations around these complex geopolitical issues.
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