In the year of the 100% return of the public, the knot to be solved at the Rome Internationals is the presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
The case was ready to come out and the spark punctually arrived on the day of the presentation of the Italian Master 1000, with the Wimbledon thrust that cut off the Moscow tennis players from the Slam tournament due to invasion of Ukraine.
The first reaction of the Italian government came from the Undersecretary for Sport, Valentina Vezzali.
"We follow the line dictated by the IOC" and Bach's recommendation to national Olympic committees and federations in this regard is clear: exclusion from international competitions of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
A little less than two weeks before the start of the Internationals, however,
For ATP and WTA, the private organizations that manage the male and female circuits of professional tennis, have every right to take the field, so much so that in the tournaments held so far, just think of the most recent Masters 1000 and 500 in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, several Russians have played such as Andrei Rublev (who also won the final against Novak Djokovic) and Aslan Karatsev.
The president of Coni has been repeating for days: "I don't do politics, but I am part of a world that is the IOC, the organization on which the world sports system depends.
Bach's indication towards Russian and Belarusian athletes is very clear Then there are organizations that can decide, as they are private, to accept this indication or not.
Clearly the athletes are victims of this situation, I am obviously talking about those who have not come out with declarations in favor of war, but the IOC's recommendation to follow is well defined. " players like Medvedev, Rublev, Karen Kachanov and Karatsev for men or Sabalenka for women.
Federtennis hopes that, for better or worse, it is not decided too close to the start of the tournament and that the rules are clear already by the day of the draws of the main draw, scheduled for the late afternoon of Friday 6 May. .
In the meantime, the government is at work, but the margin for action seems little because taking a collective decision by leading all anti-Putin countries to exclude Russian tennis players from their tournaments is difficult and even more complicated seems to convince the ATP and WTA to change their minds.
