Banned from the Olympics, Russian tennis is suffering a severe loss of talent.

Several Russian tennis players have switched citizenship with the aim of gaining Olympic participation, alongside other motives.

Yesterday, December 4th Vietnam time, tennis player Anastasia Potapova officially joined the growing list of athletes leaving Russia amid the ongoing ban on Russian and Belarusian tennis. The 24-year-old announced on social media that her citizenship application was approved by the Austrian government, and she will compete under Austria’s flag starting from the 2026 season.

Potapova finished the 2025 season ranked 51st in the world. She won her only title of the year at the WTA Cluj-Napoca tournament in February and ended the season with a 24-16 win-loss record. Becoming an Austrian citizen also means Potapova will surpass Julia Grabher (ranked 94) as the highest-ranked Austrian player on the WTA Tour.

"I am extremely happy to announce that my citizenship application has been approved. Austria is where I feel welcomed and consider my second home. I love Vienna and am very excited to make it my home,"Potapova shared.

Since March 2022, the Russian and Belarusian Tennis Federations have been banned from participating in ATP, WTA, and ITF tournaments. Players from these two countries can only compete as neutrals and cannot represent their national teams in events like the Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup, or United Cup. Wimbledon even banned Russian players from competing in the 2022 season..

Potapova is the second player within three days to decide to forgo representing Russia, following Kamilla Rakhimova, ranked 112th in the world, who switched to play for Uzbekistan. Previously, Daria Kasatkina, Maria Timofeeva, Elina Avanesyan, Natela Dzelamidze, and Alexander Shevchenko have all changed their nationality.

Shamil Tarpischev, president of the Russian Tennis Federation, believes this wave of nationality changes stems from the desire to participate in the Olympics. According to him, switching sports nationality is not an act of betrayal but a solution to continue competing.

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