Former second racket in the world among juniors Anastasia Pivovarova told Gazeta.Ru that she will support Varvara Gracheva, despite her decision to change sport citizenship, and also called her departure from the Russian team a big loss for domestic tennis.
Gracheva, whose transition to sports citizenship of France was recorded by the WTA, won the day before in his first match under the new flag. In the first round of the tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, the ex-Russian defeated Romania’s representative, Jacqueline Christian, in straight sets in less than an hour.
Of course, it’s a big loss. I always say that any player is very valuable for his country. It doesn’t matter where it sits in the rankings. Everyone has the opportunity to break through to the top,” Pivovarova said. — There have already been quite a few examples where, even at 30, players showed their best results, and someone showed himself in doubles and even in mixed doubles. Therefore, I think all players should be valued. Any loss is undesirable for Russian tennis.
The ex-second racket in the world said she would continue to support Gracheva under the French flag.
I wish Barbara good luck. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision for her. All the same, we will encourage and support her as a tennis player. But, unfortunately, the circumstances were such that she changed her nationality and will now compete under another flag,” said Pivovarova.
Gracheva has been training in Cannes since 2016 and has lived in France for seven years. She has won seven titles in International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments.
Journal.ru
Source : MatchTV
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