Marta Kostyuk Unlikely To Participate In US Open Charity Event - Reports

The US Open Charity event is going to happen one week before the Grand Slam. The main reason behind this event is to raise funds for those affected by Russia's war against Ukraine. Top global Tennis stars like Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, and others will be available for this novel cause.

But, now, Marta Kostyuk announced that she will not be participating in this event to contribute to the rehabilitation efforts in Ukraine. She said that Russian players will be present there also. So she will not be there to represent Ukraine.

“I immediately said that I will not participate in this," - Marta Kostyuk

Marta Kostyuk said: "Of course, I received an invitation. I think all our players got them. When Lesya Tsurenko and I found out - I'm only talking about us now because we didn't ask anyone - so when we found out that there would be representatives of Russia or Belarus at this event, I immediately said that I will not participate in this," 

She also added that the authorities should have asked them first regarding their presence along with Russian players. She added: "First of all, no one asked the Ukrainian athletes if they wanted any of these players to be present. Of course, no one is interested in this, it is the Independence Day of Ukraine, but what Ukrainians think is not interesting, is it?"

“I have a lot of comments on this topic. It simply does not fit in my head, how this could happen. The WTA is very protective of Russian and Belarusian athletes. They say that NONE (emphasis intonation) of them support Russia and they are all such good guys. But, as we can see, the trigger point in them is the Ukrainian flag.” she added.

“And the fact that the trigger for us is those Russians and Belarusians who support Russia , no one is interested in that. That is, our requests to do something are completely ignored. We understood from the very beginning that they were clearly not on our side, unfortunately. But no one thought that it would reach such an absurdity. In the future, we hope that our actions will be known, we are engaged in this” Marta Kostyuk concluded.