After advancing to her first Wimbledon semifinal Wednesday, Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk slammed the International Olympic Committee's decision to provisionally lift its ban on Russia and recommend that individual sports drop the neutral status for athletes.
As in most sports, Russian players have competed as neutrals on the men's and women's tennis tours since the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out in 2022. The Kremlin on Wednesday welcomed the IOC's decision as an "important step" toward reinstating the rights of Russian athletes.
Kostyuk had a different take.
"My thoughts are that it's terrible," Kostyuk said after her quarterfinal win over Jasmine Paolini. "I think it's very, very far from fair play for all the countries involved here, not just for Ukraine. I 100% don't agree with this decision.... I just want to go out there and hopefully beat every single Russian I play in the Olympics."