I suppose it is an improvement over what happened in Wimbledon where Russian players were not even allowed to compete. It's definitely better than that but what they are doing now is just petty and stupid. We all know where these players are from but during the coverage the USTA and the networks covering the events are really going out of their way to not only not glorify anything about Russia, but they are even avoiding saying the words "Russia" or "Russian."
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The thing is this: Everyone that follows tennis knows exactly where these players are from and it kind of makes me wonder what is the USO's hoping to accomplish by doing this rather silly censorship of the word and the flag of Russia and Belarus? Are they shielding people in New York from getting triggered by a flag or something? Everyone knows where they are from so what is the point?
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If you look at the score recaps from a few days ago you will see that all players have their flag next to their name except for Sablenka and Rublev who are both from Russia or Belarus.
To me this just seems like something that children would do during a game by disallowing something so trivial that most of the people involved probably don't even care about at all. In the stands where they have the scoreboard, the flags of other nations are shown next to their names but the Russian or Belarusian players simply have a black square.
I don't exactly watch all tennis events very closely but I don't recall many instances where players were draped in their country's flag and used their victories as an opportunity to promote their patriotism. The Russians and Belarusians would certainly not do that now and they also, wisely, dodge questions about the political turmoil that is going on in the world. It is completely foolish that the media tries to force them into talking about this because even though the media isn't exactly known for caring about anyone other than themselves, certainly the realize that to speak out against their own country could have very dire after-effects for the and their families. This isn't USA. You can't just say nasty things about your country or your country's leaders and expect nothing to happen in return.
I think that the world of sport and the world of politics needs to always be kept separate. Medvedev, who has already been eliminated sadly, had nothing to do with the political aspects of his country and therefore should not be punished for it. Any competitor that says otherwise most likely is afraid of facing Medvedev and being eliminated by him.
I suppose it was a good thing that the US Open didn't completely ban the athletes the way that Wimbledon did, but honestly, that decision was probably made because of the way that people reacted to Wimbledon making such a decision. They have single-handedly sent the world rankings into a bit of a spiral and making the world rankings a bit irrelevant. This is compounded by the fact that Novak Djokovic is once again, not allowed to play because of his vaccination status. The rankings in the record books are going to have asterisks next to them when they are written.
In the meantime I stick with what I am saying about the US Open's decision to ban the flag and national anthem or even saying the names of the countries during broadcasts is childish, serves no purpose, and is really quite stupid.