With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the majority of countries in the world are passing sanctions on Russia. Some tennis tournaments have banned Russian and Belarusian participation, but players are still allowed to play under neutral flags by the WTA and ATP Tour. However, a section of athletes and sports enthusiasts found it problematic. Aligning further in line with this controversy comes an unexpected statement by the former Ukrainian tennis player Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Dolgopolov has taken to Twitter to accuse WTA CEO Steve Simon of “intimidating Ukrainian women.” This comes after Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko had to withdraw from her Indian Wells third-round match against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, citing a panic attack caused by Simon’s comments. This incident closely follows Billie Jean King’s conversation with the first lady of Ukraine at the Forbes 30/50 summit and, needless to say, Simon is receiving immense backlash from the tennis community.

Alexandr Dolgopolov bashes WTA CEO for his stand!

Recently, Ukrainian WTA icon Lesia Tsurenko told the Ukrainian media BTU that Simon had assured her that he did not support the war. However, he also said that if players from Russia and Belarus did, it was their own opinion, and that she should not be upset about it.

This was picked by Dolgopolov, who retired from tennis in 2018, and now urges Simon to make his comments public. He called out the WTA CEO. In a quote retweet sharing Tsurenko’s experience, he said, “Steve, instead of intimidating Ukrainian women, be a man and take this to the public. The conversation happened with you on duty, people deserve to know, it’s OK, to support genocide.”

Billie Jean King reaches out to communicate a message for peace

Despite the WTA CEO’s comments, tennis legend Billie Jean King recently assured the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, about tennis’ clear support for Ukraine in the ongoing crisis. In the recent Forbes 30/50 summit in Abu Dhabi, she said, “I just like to thank everyone and particularly Madame Zelenska for being here. Just so you know it’s a sidebar here, but we have this Tennis Plays for Peace. So our sport is trying to give as much as we can in every way possible to help Ukraine. So I just want you to know that.”

Read more: ‘He Wants Ukrainian Players to Shut Up’ – Huge Backlash Surrounds WTA Boss After 35-Year-Old Tennis Player’s Explosive Revelation

King’s message of support for Ukraine and her commitment to promoting peace and equality sounds reassuring, but the hype around it is marred by this recent incident. As for Simon’s alleged comments, he has not yet responded to the allegations.

Watch This Story: Five moments when Serena Williams lost her temper