On August 24, a charity tennis event will be held in New York to raise funds to help Ukraine with the participation of top players. Among other tennis stars, the ex-first racket of the planet, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, was supposed to play on it, but because of her possible participation, Ukrainian tennis players threatened to boycott.

In the end, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) decided to listen to the Ukrainians and left the representative of the aggressor country out of the list of participants in the exhibition match.

" Vika is a strong leader, we appreciate her willingness to join. But given the objections of the Ukrainian players and the ongoing conflict, we believe this is the right course of action for us," We add that earlier the Belarusian spoke out against Wimbledon banning tennis players from aggressor countries from participating in competitions.. Also, she still has not openly condemned the war that Russia, with the assistance of Belarus, is waging against Ukraine..

Recall that the US Open decided to allow athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus to the tournament. Despite the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the tennis players of the aggressor countries will play in a neutral status.

The US Open will take place from August 29 to September 11, 2022.

At the US Open, four Ukrainians will also play in the main draw: Angelina Kalinina, Marta Kostyuk, Dayana Yastremska and Lesya Tsurenko. Three more Ukrainian tennis players: Daria Snigur, Kateryna Beindl and Kateryna Zavatskaya will play in the qualification of the last Grand Slam tournament of this season.