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When avoidable war intrudes into innocent sports event

 

A Cincinnati Open spectator was forced to leave a match between two Russian stars Sunday when one of the players took offense to her flying the Ukrainian flag.

The fan, an American identified in local media only as ‘Lola’, said the qualifying match between Anna Kalinskaya and Anastasia Potapova was stopped for the umpire to call to her and say ‘you’re not being nice’ and she was threatened with the police being called by a security guard.

Video of the incident posted online showed WTA chair umpire Morgane Lara come down from her chair to speak to the fan, who ultimately left the court.

Lola, who was left in tears, told Local 12: ‘This is not Russia. This is United States of America.’

She added: ‘We had our Ukrainian flag, not doing anything crazy, distracting players, but wrapped around, sitting there peacefully and quiet.’

Asked about the confrontation with security, the American fan, originally from Uzbekistan, said the umpire told her: ‘You’re not being nice. You need to put the flag away.’

Lola said: ‘The message I got was that it is agitating Russian players. I said, “I’m not putting it away”. They kept playing for a minute or two. Then, they stopped the game again, and then the security guard came up to me and said, “Ma’am, I’m going to call the cops if you won’t leave”.’

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She was reported to have watched the match silently.

A statement from the Cincinnati Open, currently branded as the Western & Southern Open, read: ‘Per the Western & Southern Open’s bag policy, as stated on the tournament’s website, flags or banners larger than 18 x 18 are prohibited.

‘Therefore, the patron was asked to remove the flag from the grounds and after doing so was allowed to remain at the tournament.

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