Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia has condemned a Russian flag being flown during a match between players from the warring nations at the Australian Open on Monday.
Russia’s war of aggression has seen the nation sanctioned in the sporting world, with punishments ranging from full bans (at Wimbledon and the World Cup) to athletes competing under a neutral flag.
The latter is the case at Melbourne Park this year, with players such as back-to-back finalist Daniil Medvedev shown on the TV broadcast with a white flag in the place of the Russian one during his first-round match with Marcus Giron.
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Relevant players are listed without a nation on official tournament documents and statistics.
All of that applied to Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova during her opening clash against Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl, won 7-5 6-7(8) 6-1 by the latter.
But a screengrab during the second set tiebreak circulated on social media showing a fan had hung up a Russian flag on the trees surrounding the small Court 14.
On Monday night Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko took to Twitter to “strongly condemn the public display of the Russian flag during the game of the Ukrainian tennis player Kateryna Baindl at the Australian Open today.
“I call on Tennis Australia to immediately enforce its “neutral flag” policy,” he added.
Myroshnychenko last week urged the Australian Open to ban Russian and Belarusian players entirely – the latter due to Belarus’ support of Vladimir Putin’s invasion – as Wimbledon did.
The tournament opted for its neutral flag policy instead.
