Andrey Rublev, world number 8, estimated Thursday that the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players from the next Wimbledon tournament because of the conflict in Ukraine was “totally discriminatory”.
Russian Andrey Rublev, world number 8, said Thursday that the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players from the next Wimbledon tournament because of the conflict in Ukraine was “totally discriminatory”. “The reasons they (Wimbledon, editor’s note) gave us had, how to say, no sense, they were not logical,” he said on the sidelines of the ATP 250 tournament in Belgrade. “What is happening now is totally discriminatory against us”, he continued: “It will not change anything”, also assured the player, who had written “No war please” on a television camera during a competition in Dubai just after the invasion.
“Giving the tournament prize money to humanitarian aid, to families who are suffering, to children who are suffering, that’s something that would have a bit of an impact,” he continued: “In this case, tennis would be the only sport to give away such an amount, and it would be thanks to Wimbledon, who would get all the glory.” The organizers of the Major on grass announced on Wednesday the exclusion from the 2022 edition of the tournament of Russian and Belarusian players due to the war in Ukraine, a decision strongly contested by the ATP and the WTA.
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A “crazy” decision according to Djokovic
“In the circumstances of unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefit from the participation of Russian or Belarusian players”, justified the British Grand Slam tournament. The four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) are independent of the men’s and women’s circuits, where Russians and Belarusians are still allowed to participate in the tournaments, under a neutral banner.
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To read : Roger Federer donates $500,000 for children in Ukraine
Moreover, the ATP described the decision taken by Wimbledon as “unfair”, especially as it extends to all the grass-court tournaments this summer in Great Britain, in particular Queen’s and Eastbourne, which are under the aegis of the ATP. The WTA also declared itself “very disappointed” with the announcement made by Wimbledon, which it considers “neither fair nor justified”. For his part, world number 1 Novak Djokovic called the decision of the Wimbledon tournament “crazy”, while saying that he would “always condemn the war, being himself a child of the war” at the end of his first match on Wednesday at the Belgrade tournament.
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