Anastasia Potapova with Spartak Moscow shirt: Iga Swiatek is furious!

• Sports

The war in Ukraine is a topic that is very present in the debate in the world of tennis. The Russian and Belarusian tennis players play under a neutral flag and had to miss the Wimbledon tournament due to a fight between the English Slam tournament and the ATP.

Some Russian tennis players have tried to send messages of peace: a striking example is Andrey Rublev, who tried to take sides against the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin over a year ago between press conferences and writings on television cameras.

However, not everyone follows this line. This is the case of Anastasia Potapova, a Russian tennis player who took to the field at Indian Wells with the shirt of Spartak Moscow, a soccer team from the Russian capital. The World number one Iga Swiatek wanted to comment on the choice of her colleague: "We are experiencing something very complicated, there is great tension in the locker room and I think we don't have the necessary leadership to regulate based on these behaviors.

To be honest, I'm very surprised to see Russian girls wearing their country's football team shirts, for example. I don't think it's good for anyone to show that kind of feeling no matter how much of a fan of that team they are, and I hope they realized that.

I spoke to WTA officials about it and they told me these situations won't happen again, which relieved me enough," said the reigning Indian Wells champion at a press conference.

The Tsurenko theme

It is not the only borderline situation.

The controversy that erupted between Tsurenko and the CEO of the WTA Steve Simon is recent. On this too, Iga Swiatek, who has already shown support for Ukraine on countless occasions, said: "I totally understand. It must be nearly impossible to stay focused every week to be able to compete considering your country is at war.

I can't imagine what I would do if they bombed Poland. I think we should all focus more on helping Ukrainian athletes, providing them with everything they need and taking care of their families. I'm going to work hard because I don't think everything is done right now. I think Russian tennis players should be more sensitive when it comes to their behavior."