Tennis federation celebrates ‘rapidly improving’ Russian star changing her sporting nationality
The Tennis Federation of Uzbekistan has officially confirmed that Russian-born tennis star Polina Kudermetova will now represent the nation on the WTA and ITF tours.
It emerged on Sunday that world No 104 Kudermetova, who reached a career-high of 54th in the world back in April, had changed to Uzbek nationality on both her official WTA and ITF profiles.
Born in Moscow, the 22-year-old had represented Russia since stepping into professional tennis in 2019, following in the footsteps of her older sister, former top-10-ranked singles player Veronika.
However, Kudermetova is now one of a notable group of players who have changed their sporting nationality away from Russia since the nation’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
With Russian players competing as neutrals on the ATP and WTA Tours — and completely barred from the Davis Cup and Billie Jean Cup — several have started representing new nations.
At least 10 high-profile stars across both the men’s and women’s games have changed their sporting nationality since February 2022.
Among those are former world No 8 Daria Kasatkina, who began representing Australia in March 2025, and Anastasia Potapova, who changed to Austrian citizenship earlier this month.
Kudermetova is the third player in recent months to start representing Uzbekistan, following Maria Timofeeva in October and Kamilla Rakhimova in December.
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The 22-year-old has yet to publicly comment on her change of sporting nationality, though her new tennis federation has issued a warm welcome in a new statement, released on Tuesday.
They wrote: “Russian tennis player Polina Kudermetova has officially changed her sporting citizenship and will now represent Uzbekistan on the international stage.
“The athlete’s updated flag can already be seen on her profile on the websites of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
“Polina Kudermetova is one of the most successful and rapidly improving ITF tennis players of recent years. She has won 10 ITF titles.”
Further in the statement, the Tennis Federation of Uzbekistan described the 22-year-old as “strongest representative” of the new generation of Uzbek tennis, and called her nationality change “an important step” to help develop women’s tennis.
It read: “Polina won four trophies, winning the W25 Jerusalem, W25 Istanbul, W25 Raanana, and W15 Kazan tournaments, all on hard courts. She also previously won titles in Kazan and Antalya, demonstrating versatility and consistency on both hard and clay courts.
“These victories confirm Kudermetova’s status as the strongest representative of the new generation and make her a key boost to Uzbek tennis.
“Kudermetova’s move is a significant boost for Uzbek tennis. She is the fifth athlete to decide to compete under the Uzbek flag. Previously, Kamilla Rakhimova, Maria Timofeeva, Alexandra Barmicheva, and Laima Vladson changed their sporting citizenship.
“Polina Kudermetova’s arrival marks an important step in the development of women’s tennis in Uzbekistan and strengthens the national team ahead of major international competitions.”
World No 104 Kudermetova is now the second-ranked Uzbek player on the WTA Tour, behind world No 97 Rakhimova; world No 143 Timofeeva is third-ranked, and they are the only players representing the nation inside the top 800 of the WTA Rankings.
Before she changed sporting nationality, Kudermetova was the Russian No 10.
