SEOUL (Yonhap) By Kim Dong-chan = Players from Russia and Belarus have been banned from competing in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour’s Prague Open ($259,303 in prize money), which begins on Aug. 31 in Prague, Czech Republic.” Players from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to compete in this year’s tournament and will not be allowed to enter the Czech Republic,” the tournament organizers announced on Monday. Alexandra Sasnovich (No. 75-Belarus), Deanna Schnyder (No. 101), Erika Andreeva (No. 156), and Polina Kudermetova (No. 157-Russia) were scheduled to compete in the tournamen t.Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (No. 98-Russia) traveled to the Prague airport but was denied entry, AFP reported .Russia and Belarus are 스포츠토토존 facing a number of disciplinary actions, including bans from international sports, for their invasion of Ukraine in February last year. However, the WTA Tour has not banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing, allowing them to compete as neutral players with no nationality label .Last week, however, Vera Zvonareva (No. 661-Russia) was banned from the WTA Tour’s Warsaw Open in Warsaw, Poland, after attempting to enter the tournamen t.In response to the Czech Republic’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players, the WTA Tour said, “Players should be able to compete without discrimination and we will review the matter. The Czech government has banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing in tournaments held on its territory since June of this year.