Former world No 1 says \u2018good riddance\u2019 after Anastasia Potapova\u2019s nationality switch<\/a><\/p>\nOliynykova, a 24-year-old who broke into the top 100 of the WTA Rankings for the first time last month, condemned Russian players who have taken a neutral stance on the war in her country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeutrality should be put to the test. Many support the war. For some, not representing their country is enough, but it isn\u2019t,\u201d Oliynykova was quoted as saying by Argentine tennis outlet Saque y Red.<\/p>\n
Andreeva and Shnaider, who are 18 and 21 respectively, are two of the brightest talents on the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n
Oliynykova called out the duo for receiving prizes rom Russian president Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven without a flag, they can play without limits. Andreeva and Shnaider received prizes from Putin,\u201d the Ukrainian said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to talk more about this. It\u2019s a big problem because they have worldwide recognition while simultaneously supporting the Russian government.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWe Ukrainians dream of peace, but it doesn\u2019t depend on us. We are only defending our country, and the Russians are the only ones who don\u2019t want peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
After winning a Challenger tournament in Colina, Chile last month, Oliynykova paid tribute to her\u00a0father, who is currently fighting in the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dedicate this achievement to my father, the best father in the world who always believed in me and now stands to protect our country,\u201d she wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad, I am proud of you and I am trying my best to make your dreams come true. Thank you for protecting me and all of us!\u201d<\/p>\n
READ NEXT: Anastasia Potapova accused of \u2018copying\u2019 Daria Kasatkina\u2019s social media post about citizenship change<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian WTA player Oleksandra Oliynykova has claimed \u201cmany\u201d Russian tennis stars support the war in Ukraine while claiming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-330242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}