Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk refused to play with Russian representative Mirra Andreeva in the final of the exhibition tournament held in Bourg-de-Page (France). This was reported by the press service of the organization.
The statement stated that Kostyuk refused to meet Andreeva due to the “geopolitical situation”.
A few days ago, Kostyuk agreed to replace Croatian tennis player Donna Vekic, who qualified for the finals of the tournament in Bourg-de-Page but was injured. In the semifinals, Andreeva defeated Varvara Gracheva, who changed her Russian citizenship to French.
As the calendar year progressed, Andreeva rose 359 places in the rankings, from 405th to 46th. The 16-year-old tennis player reached the second round of the US Open, where she lost to US representative Cori Gauff. The match, which lasted 1 hour and 17 minutes, ended with the victory of the 19-year-old American with scores of 6:3 and 6:2.
Thanks to her successful performance at Wimbledon 2023, the Russian woman entered the top 100 of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings for the first time. At a competition held in Madrid in April, she became the youngest tennis player to reach the fourth round of the WTA-1000 tournaments since the reform in 2009.
Previously to Andreev reputed WTA Rookie of the Year.