Wimbledon (June 27 to July 10) could be the first tennis event to ban Russian and Belarusian players who, since early March, have been playing under neutral status.
The
New York Times
revealed on Wednesday that the ban was confirmed to him by a senior international tennis official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the All England Club, who organizes and hosts the tournament.
The decision would exclude a number of highly ranked players.
Four Russians are ranked in the top 30 on the ATP Tour (No. 2 Daniil Medvedev who is currently nursing a hernia, No. 8 Andrey Rublev, No. 26 Karen Khachanov and No. 30 Aslan Karatsev).
Russia has five women in the top 40 of the WTA Tour rankings (Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova n°15, Daria Kasatkina n°26, Veronika Kudermetova n°29 and Ludmila Samsonova).
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year) is 4th, her compatriot Victoria Azarenka is 18th.
What about Roland Garros?
The
New York Times
recalls: “
After the start of the war in February, professional tennis organizers quickly banned Russians and their Belarusian allies from participating in team events such as the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, events won by Russian teams in 2021. The sport's seven governing bodies announced the ban collectively on March 1.
The men's and women's tournaments held in Moscow later in the season have been cancelled, along with a number of lower-tier events in Russia and Belarus.
The International Tennis Federation also announced the suspension of the Russian Tennis Federation and the Belarusian Tennis Federation from their ITF membership.
»
Roland-Garros (May 22-June 5) had presented in mid-March the framework of its reflection on the subject of the presence of Russian and Belarusian players.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the general director of the French Federation, summarized: "
We impose strict neutrality on Russian and Belarusian players (...) We remain on the principle of all the sports ministries of the European Union and of all the key countries around us.
An individual athlete is only banned if he has been selected by his country.
This is the framework, we stick to it.
“
For now
,” added Gilles Moretton, president of the FFT.
