An upset at Indian Wells was caused by Russia’s Anastasia Potapova wearing a Spartak Moscow football shirt. Iga Świątek led the criticism of supporting the country during its invasion of Ukraine, and the WTA officially admonished the Russian tennis player.
Świątek: “Such situations could have easily been avoided.”
“I’ve talked to the WTA and in a way I found out that there should be less such situations because they will explain to other players that you can’t promote any Russian teams these days, which reassured me a bit.”
Świątek said.
The 21-year-old Potapova talked with the head of the WTA, Steve Simon. She said that she has supported Russian Premier League team Spartak Moscow since she was 13 and said she saw no deliberate provocation in it.
A picture of Potapova in the T-shirt:
This situation took place after the Ukrainian player Lesia Tsurenko withdrew from Indian Wells because of a panic attack.