Russian tennis player refused travel by Polish airline over passport, sleeps in airport

Vitalia Diatchenko was denied travel aboard Polish carrier LOT, over her Russian passport. Photo / Morgan Hancock; Getty Images

A Russian tennis player with millions of dollars of prize money to her name says she was forced to sleep on an airport floor after being refused travel with a Polish airline.

Vitalia Diatchenko, previously 71 seed for women’s singles, claims that she was unable to board her flight with Polish national carrier LOT.

The sportswoman took to Instagram complaining about her treatment and asking if denying travel to Russian travellers “really helps to improve [the] situation for the peace”.

The airline LOT confirmed that it was not able to fly the tennis player on its service via Warsaw, telling CNN that restrictions from the Polish interior ministry meant it “could not accept a citizen of the Russian Federation on its flight”.

32-year-old Diatchenko who is 250th on the WTA rankings, competing as an independent athlete, was due to travel from Cairo to Corsica to play in the Calvi Ladies tournament.

The furious tennis player said that she had been given exemption letters to travel as an independent athlete.

Instead she claims she spent 18 hours in Cairo airport, sleeping on benches, unable to leave departures.

“I had all the support letters from the WTA, ITF but in modern tennis this doesn’t seem to make any difference in reality,”

Diatchenko, who was born in Sochi, Russia, has Ukrainian heritage through her father’s family. Until March 2022 she competed in international tennis tournaments under the Russian Federation.

Following the invasion of Ukraine the AELTC made the decision to ban some athletes from Russia and Belarus from their tournaments.

The WTA and LTA has allowed players to compete saying “that individual athletes may participate in professional tennis events based on merit and without any form of discrimination”.

However, travelling to these tournaments is another thing.

Diatchenko said she withdrew from the tournament in Corsica due to being unable to travel on a Russian passport. Instead she travelled back to Moscow.

“The provisions of the regulation introduce restrictions at certain border crossings, including airport crossings, in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation travelling from outside the Schengen area,” a spokesperson for LOT Polish Airlines said in a statement.

On September 9, the Council of the European Union suspended the visa-facilitation agreement between the EU and the Russian Federation due to the invasion of Ukraine.

This meant that travel to the EU became more costly and difficult for Russian passport holders.

In 2019 Russian passport holders made 16 million trips to the Schengen free movement area. Now individuals travelling on a Russian passport must apply for travel exemptions or specific talent visas in order to visit for a purpose, such as compete in a sporting event.