Today, February 20, the first racket of Ukraine Angelina Kalinina (No. 33 WTA) played the first match in the main draw of the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai.

The Ukrainian in a difficult duel beat the second racket of Russia Veronika Kudermetova (No. 11 WTA).

The match lasted for three whole hours, and Kalinina won in three games with a score of 6:3, 5:7, 7:5.

After the end of the match, tennis players hit their rackets instead of the traditional handshake.

In the next round of the tournament, Kalinina will face another Ukrainian tennis player, Dayana Yastremska,.

Recall that on February 24 last year, Russian President Putin made an urgent statement about conducting a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, launching a large-scale invasion of Ukrainian cities..

After that, Russian sports began to plunge into complete isolation.. There are practically no federations left that have not excluded the Russians from their competitions.

Russian and Belarusian tennis players and tennis players compete under a neutral flag in tournaments.

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Earlier it was reported that an 18-year-old Ukrainian beat a Russian woman in the final of a tennis tournament in Turkey..