The Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati was the scene of controversy after a tennis fan was told to ditch her Ukrainian flag or risk being banned from the competition.
The incident occurred during Sunday's qualifying encounter between Russian pair Anna Kalinskaya and Anastasia Potapova. It was there that umpire Morgane Lara told the spectator her flag was 'bothering' the duo, each of whom have shared messages opposing Russia's war against Ukraine in the past.
But as a furore developed around the incident, tournament organisers insisted the flag's size was the core of concern. However, that didn't align with the story of the spectator who said she was threatened with police intervention if she didn't comply.
"This is not Russia. This is United States of America," the woman, an Uzbekistan-born American citizen identified as 'Lola', told Local 12 news. "We had our Ukrainian flag, not doing anything crazy, distracting players, but wrapped around, sitting there peacefully and quiet.
Lola went on to say the umpire told her she was "not being nice" before being ordered to "put the flag away." It's understood she left the stands, and it was only afterward a member of the security team mentioned the flag's size being a problem.
"The message I got was that it is agitating Russian players," she added. "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.'
A statement from the competition's organisers mentioned "flags or banners larger than 18 x 18 are prohibited." Eugenia Nemirovska de Santos, the president of non-profit group Cincy4Ukraine, asked Local 12: "“Russian players come in and dictate here what U.S. citizens can or cannot do?”
Tennis fans took to social media in their droves questioning the decision in Cincinnati, with one user tweeting: "Anyone got the plug to get a thousand 18x18 Ukrainian flags to Cincinnati by tomorrow?"
Kalinskaya—who sealed a straight-sets win over her Russian compatriot—wore a 'NO WAR' message on her shoes at Indian Wells earlier this year. Defeated foe Potapova, 21, took to Instagram in the early days of Russia's siege and described herself as a "stranger to politics" but said she was "against grief, tears and war."
