Aus Open star rages over 'pro-murder' post

Ukrainian star Marta Kostyuk has delivered a fiery rant about Russian athletes competing in tennis after her fourth round victory at the Australian Open.

Kostyuk has been an outspoken critic over the ongoing war and Russian invasion within her home country and on Sunday night she took aim at an upload from the official US Open account which has since been deleted.

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Russian and Belarusian players at the Australian Open are playing as neutral athletes with their flags being replaced by dark blue squares.

After dispatching Russian Maria Timofeeva 6-2, 6-1, the US Open posted an image of Kostyuk with the scorecard displaying a Russian flag instead of the neutral flag.

The upload left Kostyuk seeing red and once again calling out why athletes from these countries are being allowed to play on the tour.

“Today, after my victory over the athlete from the aggressor country, the Russian flag was published on the official resource of one of the biggest tennis tournaments in the world,” Kostyuk wrote.

“The sports world continues to promote a murderous country and a country that uses its athletes as part of its propaganda.

“I call on media representatives, officials and the sports community to stop using the tennis court to promote ‘Russian peace’.

“We have repeatedly asked the question, ‘What is the status of a neutral athlete?’ Because it actually does not exist.

“These athletes have repeatedly said that everyone knows which countries they represent.

“Their government constantly says that these are their athletes and the world knows about it.

“The international media in their publications write that these are Russian and Belarusian athletes.

“Many athletes have their flag on social networks.”

Following her victory Kostyuk walked straight to her back and began packing up gear, refusing to acknowledge her Russian opponent.

She’ll now take on American Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals with a potential showdown against Belarusian-born Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals.

The two have an icy history with Kostyuk saying she “does not respect” Sabalenka following their match at Roland Garros.

“Just to reject her responsibility of having an opinion on the most important things in the world – I can’t respect that,” Kostyuk said after the match.

Sabalenka responded to those comments by saying: “I said many times, nobody – Russian or Belarusian athletes – support the war. Of course won’t don’t support the war. If we could stop it, we would – but it’s not in our hands.”

Her fellow Ukrainians, Elina Svitolina and qualifier Dayana Yastremska, are in fourth-round action on Monday.

Kostyuk, whose previous best effort at a major was reaching the last 16 at the French Open in 2021, earlier in the tournament accused people of forgetting about the conflict because they had got “used to it”.

“I hope that the girls can keep on doing what they’re doing and reminding as much as possible,” she said following her win against Timofeeva.

Kostyuk had three months away from the tour until her return in Brisbane this month and said when she got back “I was, like, ‘Wow, OK, everyone is back to normal life like nothing happened, ever’”.

The 37th-ranked player added that the ability of Ukrainian players to continue to perform shows “there is no limit in human possibilities withstanding stress”.

“For me personally, it was very difficult, but at the same time I’ve grown a lot as a person,” she said.

“The oddest things that have happened, they helped me to grow this quick. If there was never a war in my life, I don’t think I would be able to grow this much as I grew in the last two years.” Kostyuk said it was important to “minimise” feelings of victimhood. “I mean, very proud of all of us, honestly, for standing for so long and not losing faith and still fighting and fighting for our rights and fighting for everyone basically. I don’t know. I think it just shows how strong Ukrainian people are.”

Fellow Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko was blown off the court by Sabalenka with the two walking off the court without shaking hands.

Later on Friday, Tsurenko called the move a “national position” against athletes from Russia and Belarus due to the invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.

The handshake refusal wasn’t received well by some, who took to social media to abuse the 34-year-old Ukrainian veteran.

Following what had clearly been a difficult 24 hours for Tsurenko, a four-time winner on the WTA Tour, she posted this heartfelt message on Instagram from Melbourne Airport.

“I noticed that my loss yesterday made a lot of people happy. So my new post is for you,” she wrote to her 70,000 followers.

“Please feel free to express whatever you want to me. I hope this will make you happy for a little bit longer.

“But you know, on the eve of the new year, my friend returned from Russian captivity after 1.5 years. Lost 55 kilograms of body weight and with an infection in his legs, but the main thing is that he is alive. This is real happiness.

“So I hope that you will also have real reasons to feel happy in your life and not because of the loss of some random tennis player whom you have never even met in your life.”

- with AFP