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Rising Russian tennis star Mirra Andreeva lost to a male player today at an exhibition event in France after Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk refused to play their match. On Sunday, Andreeva was scheduled to face Donna Vekic in the Negometal Open de Bourg-de-Peage final.
After Vekic withdrew from the final, the Bourg exhibition organizers announced Kostyuk as the replacement. But Kostyuk refused to play against Andreeva due to the 16-year-old's nationality. Since there were no any other female players left in the tournament, the tournament organizers found a replacement in France's Yanis Ghazouani Durand.
Ghazouani Durand, ranked at No 1145 in the world, ended up beating Andreeva 7-5 6-2. After the first 10 games of the match, the two players were tied to five games apiece. Then, Ghazouani Durand won the next five games to open a 7-5 3-0 lead.
In the eighth game - when Andreeva was serving to stay in the match - Ghazouani Durand broke the Russian again to complete a straight-set win.
Kostyuk refused to play against Andreeva
"Due to reasons beyond our will and given the geopolitical context in Ukraine, Marta Kostyuk will not be able to compete in the final of the 6th edition of Negometal Open.
We've done our best to activate our network of professional players, but the time is unfortunately too short to find a replacement. So we took the decision to compete our Peageois Yanis Ghazouani Durand against the young prodigy Mirra Andreeva," the organizers said in a statement.
Kostyuk, one of the best Ukrainian female tennis players, hasn't been shaking hands with Russian or Belarusian players for quite some time. "Out of about 50 ... One, two, three, four, five - no more. They admitted that their country is doing something truly heinous and they want the war to end with a victory for Ukraine.
The rest may want peace, but only if Russia wins. Its citizens will gladly sacrifice millions of lives to avoid defeat. They categorically reject it, but I am sure that they will lose," Kostyuk told Ukrainian media Tribuna.