Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk slams Russian players for ‘unacceptable’ behaviour at Indian Wells

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk has hit out at the lack of support shown by Russian tennis players on the tour amid their country’s invasion of her homeland.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Tennis Federation ruled Russian and Belarusian players to be allowed to carry on competing under a neutral flag.

Kostyuk has now accused some of her Russian peers of being more concerned about problems transferring money than the conflict taking place.

‘What is very disappointing is that no Russian player came to see me,’ the 19-year-old said after her first-round win over Maryna Zanevska.

‘None have told me they’re sorry for what their country is doing to mine.

‘One player messaged me, another chatted with me, but I didn’t hear any apologies, I didn’t hear anyone telling me they didn’t support what was going on. To me, that’s shocking.

‘You don’t have to be involved in politics to behave like a human-being. Everyone knows what’s going on. It hurts me. It hurts me every time I arrive at the stadium and see all these Russian players.

‘Their only problem right now is not being able to make money transfers. That’s what they’re talking about. This is unacceptable in my opinion.’

Russian players including world No 1 Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova have all called for peace amid the ongoing war, while Anna Kalinskaya wore trainers with the message ‘no war’ in her first-round match.

But Kostyuk isn’t convinced all the statements from Russian players so far are genuine in condemning what their country is doing to Ukrainians at present.

‘I do not like it. Again, you don’t need to be involved in politics to know what’s going on, who’s invaded who, who’s bombing who… It’s very simple,’ she added.

‘You can’t be