Kvitova on Russian and Belarusian tennis players: in my opinion, they shouldn’t even compete at the Olympics

Petra Kvitova has advanced to the final of the Miami tournament, where she will face Elena Rybakina. At Friday’s post-match press conference, she spoke about Russian and Belarusian tennis players, who, in her opinion, should not even compete at the Olympics.

Shortly before the winning match, the All England Club officials decided that male and female tennis players from Russia and Belarus would be allowed to compete at Wimbledon.

Last year, the approach was quite different. So it was not surprising that at the press conference after the win over Sorana Cirstea, journalists asked Petra Kvitova a question on the subject.

The elite Czech tennis player mentioned that her attitude is still the same in this regard. “In my opinion, they (tennis players from Russia and Belarus) shouldn’t even compete at the Olympics. I’m more on the Ukrainian side on this.

I feel that the Olympics are here because we don’t want war in the world. So that worries me. And I really appreciated when Wimbledon didn’t invite them last year,” Kvitova said.

She is certainly not in the minority in her opinion among athletes. Among the biggest opponents of the inclusion of these athletes in the Olympics is Dominik Hašek.

But back to Kvitova, who last fell in the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells tournament to Greece’s Maria Sakkari. She has already swept five opponents in Miami and tonight she will face the final.

Her opponent will be Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the world number seven and the favourite for this match. The match is scheduled to start at 21:00.

Source: Livesport