prague czech police stopped a russian tennis player from entering the country ahead of the wta prague open tournament organisers said on friday as a new government resolution banning athletes from russia or belarus caused the event to scratch other competitorsthe prague open starts on monday and was expected to see a handful of russian and belarusian players including evgeniya rodina of russia or aliaksandra sasnovich of belarus competing as neutrals without any national flag or symbolbut the government approved a resolution at the end of june banning athletes from russia and belarus from competing in events on czech territory allowing police to revoke visas to those nationalstournament director miroslav maly said police had stopped one prague open participant from entering the country on thursday and organisers informed other russian and belarusian nationals not to travel for the tournament after the incidentshe was the first participant to arrive to the czech republic with a russian passport maly said adding she had already left the countrythe management of the tournament fully respect the current stance of state authorities we do not expect any player with russian or belarusian citizenship to take part in the tournament in this situationthe wta had no immediate commentczech world number 29 marie bouzkova who lost to compatriot and eventual champion marketa vondrousova at this months wimbledon won the prague open in 2022 and will defend her title the tournament will also feature chinas zhu lin and zhang shuai and frances alize cornet among the top seedsczech police had planned to make sure the government resolution was upheld for the tournament a police spokesperson told ctk news agency on thursdaya week ago polish authorities also denied entry to russian tennis player vera zvonareva a 2008 olympic bronze medallist for reasons of state security and public safetycentral and eastern europe states have been some of ukraines staunchest allies since russia invaded the country in february 2022since june 2022 the czech government has stopped issuing longterm visa to russian citizens who can gain entry only through shortterm visas if they have relatives with european union citizenship or are seeking entry on humanitarian grounds