Russian tennis player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has announced that she has been banned from entering Czech territory, where the WTA tournament in Prague is to take place from Monday.
On Friday, the Czech Interior Ministry said a Russian player had been turned away at Prague airport, without specifying her identity.
“I will not be able to participate in Prague next week. I continue my preparation on hard for the American series. See you in Cincinnati”, indicated on Instagram on the night of Friday to Saturday Pavlyuchenkova, former world No. 11 and finalist of Roland-Garros in 2021.
She also shared a statement from the Women’s Tennis Players Association (WTA) referring to “athletes banned from entering the Czech Republic”.
“Despite their neutrality, some WTA players are being denied by the Czech authorities the opportunity to participate in the WTA 250 event scheduled for Prague next week,” said the statement.
The body recalls in this press release that its rules “stipulate that all players must be authorized to participate in the WTA on the basis of their merit only, without discrimination”, and promises to “(continue) to examine the situation taking into account important considerations related to these complex geopolitical issues”.
According to the Czech news agency CTK, three Russian players were due to take part in the qualifiers this weekend, while Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich was due to take part in the tournament next week.
In June, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Czech government approved a ban on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in competitions and matches on Czech territory.