Ukraine tennis star Marta Kostyuk has admitted her hurt at seeing Russian flags and pro-Putin demonstrations at the Australian Open.
The latter stages of the competition in Melbourne have been overshadowed by a series of incidents amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Russian flags had been banned by tournament officials but were seen in the stands for Novak Djokovic's quarter-final win over Andrey Rublev earlier this week.
The Serb's father then caused further controversy by posing with a Russian nationalist holding a flag with the image of President Putin and sporting a military 'Z' symbol on his chest. Kostyuk, who was the last Ukrainian in the competition, admitted: "It hurts a lot because there were specific rules that were printed out outside that you're not allowed to bring out the flags and so on.
"It really hurts that they were there for quite some time. They were there on the court, in the stands as well and I just don't understand as well. It really hurts and I don't understand how this can be possible.”
Kostyuk made it to the semi-finals of the women's doubles competition before suffering defeat on Friday. She said she expects to receive "hate" from Djokovic fans for speaking out.
She added: "I think these kind of things cannot be left unseen, because it doesn't matter who you are, no one is allowed to do it.
"No matter what I say, I'm going to be hated the rest of my life, especially by very aggressive Novak fans. People know that, not all of them, Novak has very aggressive fans. I know this because I experienced this in the past."
Djokovic's father opted against attending the Serb's semi-final clash against Tommy Paul on Friday amid calls for him to be banned from the tournament.
Australian Open officials have vowed to crack down on Russian and Belarusian flags and symbols being displayed in Melbourne Park for the remainder of the competition
