Anastasia Potapova entered the match of the prestigious tournament in Indiana Wells against the American Jessica Pegula in the T-shirt of the Russian football club and caused discontent in the West. Calls have already begun to exclude our tennis player from the list of Wimbledon participants.
Potapova has long loved Spartak and is friends with PromesPotapova for the second time in her career began a major world tournament WTA-1000 in the status of a tennis player from the top 30. Now the Russian woman is in 28th position in the ranking. In the third round match in Indian Wells, she faced world No. 3 Jessica Pegula of the United States. Despite such a big difference in status, Anastasia gave the American a fight and was a glare for victory. Pegula had to spend three sets to succeed — 6:3, 4:6, 7:5.
However, the Russian woman attracted attention not only with excellent actions on the court. Before the start of the match, Potapova appeared on the arena in a T-shirt of the Moscow football club Spartak. She has been a fan of the ten-time champions of Russia for a long time, she even went to a private party about the Red-White champion title in 2017. The Russian woman has been attending club games since the age of 13 and is friends with many Spartak players, including the main star of the team, Quincy Promes.
Some time ago, she also trained in Dubai in the jersey of the most titled club in Russia and stated on social networks that she «joined the ranks of the» red-white «. By the way, in Australia, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka also appeared at games in the jersey of a football club — French «PSG» True, then it did not cause much resonance.
Crazy reaction But the story of «Spartacus» did not like very many in the West. Fans lashed out at Potapova on social media and for some reason saw political overtones in it. What it is, no one has explained. The madness has spread to journalists, who have already demanded that Potapova be removed from the list of Wimbledon participants. Although ours have not even officially been allowed there yet. Apparently, they want to play ahead of the curve.
- «Look at the main photo of the day in Indian Wells. Russian tennis player Anastasia Potapova jumps onto the court in a Spartak Moscow shirt. And this happened just a few days after the decision of the Wimbledon organizers to allow the Russians to return. This image is, to put it mildly, provocative,» journalist Carlos Navarro wrote on social networks.
- «The first case has appeared that needs to be taken into account, given the admission of Russians to Wimbledon. Is this already a reason to exclude Potapov or is it still? » — asks Polish reporter Adam Romer.
The Polish edition of Sport.pl published a whole publication of the story with the Spartak T-shirt and Potapova. Local journalists are sure that Anastasia made a provocative gesture, which the WTA should immediately respond to. They claim that the Russian woman thus supported the policy of President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
If this is not enchanting madness, then what is? A person in his right mind could not see in the jersey of a football club what the Polish journalists saw. It's funny that they are calling the WTA to account. I would like to believe that the Women's Tennis Association will be able to better understand this issue than in Poland.