More Ukraine-Russia tensions as Kostyuk refuses handshake with Potapova

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk refused to shake hands with Russia’s Anastasia Potapova, who beat her 6-1, 6-3 in the second round of the Miami Open.

“Obviously there is tension – we’re not friends. We are at war at the moment,” Kostyuk explained to the press.

It follows Lesia Tsurenko’s revelation that Ukrainian players had asked for a meeting with the WTA board – but Kostyuk said they had received no response as yet.

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“Yes, we wanted to have the meeting with the board and we didn’t get one. No reply, nothing, just silence,” she said according to media reports.

Potapova had recently worn a Spartak Moscow football shirt ahead of her Indian Wells match against Jessica Pegula, receiving a warning from the WTA – but Kostyuk implied that she thought that the punishment should have gone further.

“There are a lot of things that I don’t agree with that the WTA is doing. This is not going to change anything. I’ll just get more hate online. Whatever I say, I will get a lot of hate. I don’t know. You [can] give her a warning. You can suspend someone, I don’t know. I can’t comment on that really, it’s just funny.”

Potapova had explained her choice of shirt by saying: “There was not any political intention in this shirt. It’s very sad that people seeing things that isn’t actually the truth. I’m just a super fan of Spartak since I was 10 years old. My dad built part of the stadium for this team, so it’s our family thing.”

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