The Italian from the top 30 of the world ranking has come to her senses; other conscientious colleagues may follow her example
The strongest Italian tennis player, No. 30 in the WTA rankings Jasmine Paolini denied information about her planned participation in an unofficial tournament in Russian St. Petersburg.
A correspondence was made public in an Instagram direct message, where the 27-year-old athlete clearly stated: “I’m not going to Russia.”
Earlier, the Italian TV channel Rai announced that Paolini would refuse to participate in a tournament on the territory of the aggressor country and with the money of a war sponsor.
Let us remind you that an unofficial tennis tournament is planned in St. Petersburg, to which many athletes from civilized countries have been invited – in particular, Italy, France and Spain.
Potential participants include representatives of the top 100 ATP and WTA rankings Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain), Laszlo Diere (Serbia) and Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan). Initially, the name Paolini also appeared on the list of participants. Now the organizers report that the Italian has an “injury.”
According to recent data, the aforementioned Bautista Agut, as well as Victoria Tomova from Bulgaria, can follow the example of Paolini and not soil themselves by participating in a bloody Sabbath designed to show the loyalty of the “civilized world” to a terrorist country.
The general sponsor of the tournament will be the Gazprom company, one of the sponsors of Russian military aggression on the territory of Ukraine.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has already officially disowned the mentioned competition. However, no sanctions are planned for the tournament participants.
In the early hours of February 24, 2022, Russia launched rocket and air strikes on most Ukrainian cities and then launched a full-scale military invasion. The war against Russia has continued for the 645th day.
Source: Sportarena
I am Ben Stock and I work in Athletistic as an author. My specialty is covering football news and other related topics. I have been writing for this website since the past 2 years, crafting compelling stories with the latest updates in the sports world. My articles have gained widespread appreciation amongst readers due to their accuracy and depth of research.
