There was a tense Ukraine v Russia face-off at the US Open today, as Elina Svitolina of Ukraine was drawn to play Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
It was always going to be an awkward fixture, given the political situation, especially as Svitolina has been quite outspoken about Russians playing in the big Grand Slam competitions. As it happens, Pavlyuchenkova is also from a strongly pro-Putin family.
On paper, Svitolina should have been able to beat Pavlyuchenkova relatively easily. But nothing is a given in these competitions, and it all looked to be going terribly wrong for Svitolina when she lost the first set. Luckily, she rallied and ended up winning the game in three sets.
Just as well. A Russian win over Ukraine would have been hard to stomach, for Svitolina, and for everyone else.
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