For Russian tennis fan Eugene Routman, the Australian Open banning Russian and Belarusian players from competing under their country’s name was bad enough. Now he has been prohibited from even waving his Russian flag in the crowd.
Tennis Australia banned Russian and Belarusian flags on Tuesday morning following a courtside incident involving Routman which escalated all the way to the Russian and Ukrainian embassies and reignited an age-old debate about the “politicisation” of sport.
Russian fan Eugene Routman (left) and his friend Duran Raman pose for a photo following Daniil Medvedev’s match on Monday night.Credit:Michael Koziol
The 36-year-old Routman, who was born in Moscow but moved here when he was five, was among several men who placed a Russian flag in the stands during Kamilla Rakhimova’s first-round match against Ukrainian Kateryna Baindl on Monday.
Routman, who described Russia as an authoritarian state, wore a T-shirt with the words “Mother Russia” and an image of a shirtless Vladimir Putin on horseback, but affixed with devil horns. He said this was meant to “take the piss” out of Russia’s president.
“We got a few complaints but we weren’t heckling, we were just cheering for the Russian player because she only had one supporter, her mum,” Routman told the Herald and The Age later.
“It’s not like we’re waving Nazi flags and ISIS flags. It’s a sovereign country.”
But Ukrainian fans saw it differently, calling security and police to court 14 and asking for the flag to be removed. Routman pulled down the flag while security personnel were nearby and no further action was taken.
A Russian flag is seen during the first-round match between Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia and Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine at the Australian Open.Credit:AP
One of the complainants, Ukrainian-Australian Maria Tumarkin, accused Routman and his friends of heckling and “taunting” Baindl during the match – a claim he denied. Tumarkin said security guards did not seem to have been briefed on the sensitivity of a Russia-Ukraine match-up amid the conflict.
“This is profoundly unsafe, the war is ongoing,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s a small court, the guys were extremely close to the players, so there was an element of what I felt was intimidation.”
Daniil Medvedev of Russia autographs a flag after defeating American Marcos Giron in the first round.Credit:AP
Around the world, sporting organisers are grappling with how to deal with Russian players and fans amid Putin’s war on Ukraine, which has been waged for nearly a year and claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In Britain, Russian and Belarusian players were banned from competing at last year’s Wimbledon, leading the tennis tour to strip that tournament of its ranking points. But the other grand slams have allowed the athletes to compete as “independent players”, with their countries’ flags replaced by neutral white squares.
For fans, this dynamic has also proved challenging. On day one at Melbourne Park, supporters of Russian players were generally reserved about their support and reluctant to discuss the way the tournament had handled the issue.
One couple watching Anna Kalinskaya lose to Danielle Collins at Kia Arena on Monday afternoon discreetly waved a Russian flag at the end of the match before folding it up and packing it away. They declined to be interviewed.
But Brisbane woman Julie Ferguson and her son Jack, who watched their favourite Russian player, world No.7 Daniil Medvedev, practise on Monday, were happy to show their support. Ferguson said the two-time Australian Open finalist should be allowed to compete under the Russian flag.
“It’s just virtue signalling,” she said. “I don’t see how it helps or supports anything by denying the fact he’s Russian when everyone knows he’s Russian. It seems a bit silly.
“Just because we support Russian players doesn’t mean we support what’s going on [in the war].”
Medvedev supporters Julie Ferguson and son Jack at a Medvedev training session.Credit:Eddie Jim
On Monday night, following the courtside incident on court 14, Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko tweeted his condemnation of the public display of the Russian flag and called for authorities to enforce a ban. Former Australian ambassador to Ukraine Doug Trappett chimed in, saying it was “embarrassing” for the Open and painful for Ukrainians.
Tennis Australia released a statement on Tuesday morning advising an immediate ban on Russian and Belarusian flags had been implemented across Melbourne Park.
“Our initial policy was that fans could bring them in but could not use them to cause disruption,” organisers said. “Yesterday we had an incident where a flag was placed courtside.
“We will continue to work with the players and our fans to ensure the best possible environment to enjoy the tennis.”
Russian fan Eugene Routman (left) and his friend Duran Raman hold up the Russian flag after Daniil Medvedev’s win on Rod Laver Arena.Credit:Michael Koziol
The Russian embassy reacted angrily to the ban, declaring it “another example of unacceptable politicisation of sports” and saying it was regrettable that organisers had given in to “overt and rather arrogant political manipulation”.
But Russian world No.5 Aryna Sabalenka shrugged it off, saying: “If everyone feels better this way, then it’s OK.”
Routman also waved his Russian flag in the stands of Rod Laver Arena on Monday night while cheering Medvedev to a breezy straight-sets win over American Marcos Garin.
He said it was hypocritical for sporting authorities to ban athletes or force them to compete as independent players.
“Sport has nothing to do with politics and politics should have nothing to do with sport. It’s a tennis game,” he said.
“You’re punishing the tennis players who probably are against the war, but they can’t speak because Russia’s not a democracy, Russia’s an authoritarian state.”
With Matthew Knott and Scott Spits
