Anastasia Potapova changes sporting nationality to Austria ahead of 2026 tennis season

Another Russian-born player is changing her sporting nationality ahead of the 2026 season.

Former world No. 21 Anastasia Potapova, currently ranked No. 51, announced Thursday that she will begin representing Austria with immediate effect after her application for citizenship was recently approved.

"Austria is a place I love, is incredibly welcoming and a place where I feel totally at home," wrote the 24-year-old Potapova in an Instagram post confirming the news.

Potapova will become, by some distance, the top-ranked Austrian player in the WTA rankings when her change takes effect officially. The second-highest ranked Austrian currently is No. 94 Julia Grabher, followed by No. 109 Sinja Kraus, and No. 155 Lilli Tagger, the reigning junior Roland Garros champion.

Austrian soil has been a happy place for Potapova in her pro career to date, as she captured her second career WTA singles title in Linz two years ago. The native of Saratov, Russia said she "look[s] forward to making [her] second home" in Vienna, referring to the capital by its German name Wien.

"I am proud to announce that starting from 2026 I will be representing my new homeland Austria in my professional tennis career from this point onwards," she added.

The move follows several nationality changes by Russian-born players in recent weeks, after the highest-profile of them came in March when Daria Kasatkina announced she received permanent residency in Australia.

In November, 22-year-old Maria Timofeeva, a former world No. 93 who reached the fourth round of the 2024 Australian Open, announced her decision to represent Uzbekistan, and it was reported six weeks later that world No. 112 Kamilla Rakhimova intended to do so, too. Former world No. 60 Rakhimova, 24, has an Uzbek mother who was a youth tennis player for the Uzbek SSR, and her elder brother was born in Tashkent.

Russian and Belarusian tennis players have played as neutral athletes, listed without a flag, since shortly after the Russian government's decision to invade Ukraine, with Belarusian support, more than three years ago.