Rivers of ink have flowed over the decision of Wimbledon of leaving Russians and Belarusians out of his tournament due to the Russia-Ukraine war. A position that was not adopted by any other tournament and that was not supported even by the ATP nor for the WTA. In fact, it must be remembered that these organizations decided to impose large fines on the British Tennis Federation (LTA) that have already generated speculation about whether the Grand Slam will maintain these sanctions in 2023.
In addition to the fines, the ATP threatened Wimbledon with excluding the tournament from the calendar if it maintained its ban on players of Russian and Belarusian nationality, it was precisely for this reason that various media outlets commented that the British ‘major’ would be considering reversing his decision, although nothing has finally been official and a firm decision is not expected until April, when there will only be two months left for the grass tour to begin.
He has spoken on this matter in the last few hours Aryna Sabalenka, the semifinalist of the tournament in 2021 has spoken from Dubai -where she is playing the World Tennis League- for AFP and, according to what she says, she is not overly concerned about the decision made by the tournament, since it is something that is not in her hands and that in In case of not being able to return, he will accept it and move on. She nonetheless admitted that she wishes the event was more respectful of them and that she understood that there is not much they can do to stop what is happening in Ukraine. “I think I have no control over this situation. I am sitting and waiting for the decision and whatever happens, it will happen,” Sabalenka told AFP.
That is why he does not want to give a bad life either and in case he cannot return to Wimbledon this year either, he prefers to stay with the positive. “If they are going to ban us from being there for another year that’s fine, whatever it is I’m going to have fun at home in Miami and I’m going to spend some time with my family and do another preseason. Whatever they decide, it’s their decision. I don’t care about Wimbledon”, commented the Belarusian.
EXPECT THEM TO BE MORE OPEN
Although she says she is not worried about what Wimbledon decides, she acknowledges that she would like to be able to play the tournament again, where she has also had good results, especially in 2021 when she was one small step away from playing the grand final. . “I really hope they will be a bit more open for us, but as last year showed, the Belarusians and the Russians would not be really happy at their event,” she concluded.
It should be remembered that Wimbledon 2023 will begin on July 3, so there are still many months ahead for a final decision to be made. However, it doesn’t seem possible that the tournament will continue much longer in this stance as the sanctions are hurting the LTA a lot and it is completely isolated in this stance. It should also be noted that the majority of tennis players, for example Nadal or Djokovic, were against this decision, so it is clear that the little support they have will make them at least reconsider their decision.
The last tennis player to speak out on the matter was precisely a British player. Cameron Norrie He commented a few days ago that he felt sorry for them: “I want the best players in the world to play. Last year was difficult for those guys, especially for Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev who had the chance to win Wimbledon; especially because I know how much they sacrificed those guys in their careers. Their goals are obviously very high and they think they are winning Slams. So I really felt bad for those guys”, commented the British player.
