The prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament kicks off on June 27, today (Wednesday) the tournament management decided that the Russian and Belarusian players will not be allowed to compete this year due to the invasion of Ukraine.
The world number two Daniel Medvedev from Russia, and the world number four, Arena Svalanka from Belarus, are the two players with the highest rating who will not be able to play.
Seblanka, who reached the semi-finals of the tournament last year, will lose valuable ranking points, but she is not alone.
Russian Andrei Rublev from eighth place in the men's rankings, and his compatriot Karen Khachanov, who is in 26th place, will also not be able to take part in the tournament.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized the decision: "Given that Russia is a strong tennis country and our athletes have a high world ranking, the tournament itself will suffer because of this ban. It is not acceptable to make athletes hostage due to political prejudice, intrigue and hostile actions towards the country. our".
Russian and Belarusian athletes were not allowed to compete in many other sports either, with the next big event banning their participation being the European Judo Championships in Bulgaria next week, in which about 400 athletes from 40 countries including 17 from Israel will take part.
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