The ATP and the WTA announced that Wimbledon will not distribute points due to the exclusion of Russians and Belarusians

The ATP and the WTA reported that they will eliminate the ranking points of Wimbledon this year after Russian and Belarusian players were banned from the Grand Slam tournament as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

“With great regret and reluctance, We see no other option but to remove the Wimbledon ATP ranking points by 2022″, says the ATP statement. “Our rules and agreements exist to protect the rights of players as a whole. Unilateral decisions of this nature, if not addressed, set a damaging precedent for the rest of the Tour. Discrimination for individual tournaments is simply not feasible”.

For its part, the WTA, the body that directs the women’s professional circuit, announced a similar action: “Due to the decision of Wimbledon of not using the WTA ranking to decide participation (in the tournament) and deciding a partial draw not based on merit, the WTA made the difficult decision not to award WTA points in Wimbledon this year”.

The decision of the ATP causes, for example, that the defending champion and number one in the world, Novak Djokovic, lose 2,000 points. “We highly value our long-standing relationships with Wimbledon and we do not underestimate the difficult decisions we face in responding to recent guidance from the UK government.” “Our internal discussions with the affected players, in fact, led us to conclude that this would have been a more palatable option for the Tour.”

In April, the organizers of Wimbledon, which takes place between June 27 and July 10, decided to exclude Russian and Belarusian players in an unprecedented measure for the tour. “In the circumstances of such unprecedented and unwarranted military aggression, It would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefit from the participation of Russian or Belarusian players in The Championships.”, they had pointed out since the tournament.

Among the main victims of this measure were the Russian Daniil Medvedev, current US Open champion and number two in the world. In addition, there are three other compatriots of his in the top 30 on the ATP Tour and Russia has five women in the Top 40 of the ranking. WTA Tour, led by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (21°). Meanwhile, the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka is ranked No. 7 and was a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year, while his compatriot Victoria Azarenkaformer number one, is currently ranked number 15.

Now, we will have to wait to see if Wimbledon goes back and cancels this decision or if it stands firm. The truth is that it has generated a great debate in tennis to the point that Rafael Nadal himself gave his opinion on the subject and described the measure as “unfair”: “It is not their fault (of the Russian tennis players) what is happening in this moment with the war”.

For its part, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) quickly confirmed on Friday that it was also refusing to award ranking points to Wimbledon for youth and wheelchair events.

With information from AFP

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