Former Ukrainian junior number one Nikita Bilozertsev has changed his sports citizenship to Uzbek. Corresponding changes were made to his profile on the International Tennis Federation website.
Bilozertsev is ranked 13th in the ITF junior world rankings. Last year, he won his debut professional title, becoming champion at the ITF U15 tournament in Serbia.
Bilozertsev was first informed about a potential change in his sports citizenship by the publications Big Tennis of Ukraine and Champion, when the tennis player refused to answer questions from Ukrainian journalists while participating in the doubles at Wimbledon 2025, and his coach said that the athlete would communicate in English or Russian.
On Sunday, March 22, Bilozertsev took part in the Challenger qualifiers in Split, Croatia. The 17-year-old tennis player lost in straight sets to Italian Filippo Romano. This match will be the tennis player's last under the “blue-yellow” flag.
Bilozertsev is not the first tennis player to join the Uzbek national team in the past year. Over the past six months, several Russian tennis players who previously played under a “neutral” flag have changed their sports citizenship to Uzbek: Kamilla Rakhimova, Polina Kudermetova, and Maria Timofeeva.