A fan was asked to leave the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati after wearing a Ukrainian flag at a match.
A woman named Lola wore a flag across her shoulders while watching a match between two Russian players Anna Kalinskaya and Anastasia Potapova.
One of the players made a complaint, leading to the umpire asking Lola to remove the flag as it was causing a distraction for the players on the court.
“This is not Russia,” Lola told Ohio-based television station Local 12. “This is United States of America. We had our Ukrainian flag, not doing anything crazy, distracting players, but wrapped around, sitting there peacefully and quiet.”
Tennis’ stance over the war in Ukraine has been controversial, with Russian and Belarusian players banned from Wimbledon, a decision criticised by John McEnroe among others.
While Ukrainian player Marta Kostyk hit out at Russian players' stance on the war.
This issue in the sport appears to be here to stay ahead of the US Open with a video of the incident going viral and showing Lola, who is American and originally from Uzbekistan, being accused of “not being nice” by the chair umpire once the match was temporarily halted.
Lola then says the chair umpire told her: “‘You need to put the flag away’. The message I got was that it is agitating Russian players. I said, ‘I’m not putting it away.’ They kept playing for a minute or two.
“Then, they stopped the game again, and then the security guard came up to me and said, ‘Ma’am, I’m going to call the cops if you won’t leave.”
Lola then left the stands before the same security guard found her 15 minutes later and pushed for her to remove the flag or leave the tournament, explaining that ‘it exceeded size rules.’
The Western & Southern Open said in a statement: “Flags or banners larger than 18 x 18 are prohibited.”
Before a spokesperson added, “Questions regarding a chair umpire need to be addressed to the WTA Tour.”
But the WTA Tour is yet to respond after being asked to comment.
Nonprofit Cincy4Ukraine has confirmed it has made contact with a civil rights attorney to explore the possibility that Lola’s first amendment rights were violated.
