Ukraine’s Oleksandr Dolgopolov wants to play for Russia, issue still not resolved

Ukrainian tennis player Oleksandr Dolgopolov admitted he is in process of changing his sporting citizenship to become eligible to play for Russia and explained the reasons behind his decision.

«The media have long been discussing your possible change of citizenship, from the Ukrainian to the Russian one. Did the situation get resolved?»

«For now I play for Ukraine. No other news available. I don’t take part in the Davis Cup and don’t plan to. As of today there’s nothing new I can say, there’s nothing to discuss. I’m more focused on individual tournaments.»

«Do you think tennis and politics are related?»

«There are countries, where people watch it. Even the presidents congratulate players there. But there are also countries, where tennis is played, but you don’t feel any particular attention to it. In Ukraine, it’s not very well developed, we have no channels to broadcast tennis, few people know about this sport. If someone wants to watch, he has to buy a satellite dish from NTV [Russian TV operator – Sports.ru], but only five percent of the country’s population can afford it. Therefore, the sport isn’t very well developed, people only watch football, » Dolgopolov said to Sports.ru reporter.