Australian Open: Small incident - Russian flags are now banned
Ukraine's ambassador to Australia has called for a complete ban on Russian and Belarusian flags on the Melbourne Park grounds. The organizer complied with the request.
by SID
last edit:
Jan 17, 2023, 06:20 am
The organizers of the Australian Open have banned Russian and Belarusian flags from the tournament grounds. The country's Ukrainian ambassador had requested this after a Russian flag had been placed on the sidelines in the first round between his compatriot Kateryna Baindl and Russia's Kamilla Rakhimova.
"Flags from Russia and Belarus are banned on site at the Australian Open," Tennis Australia said in a statement on Tuesday. "Our initial policy was that fans could bring them but not cause disruption." But that was what happened in the match that Baindl won in three sets.
Due to Russia's attack on Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian tennis pros have been forced to compete under a neutral flag for quite some time. In Wimbledon they were even excluded from the competition, which had led to a controversy between the organizers and the tour organizations ATP and WTA.