As expected, the Roland-Garros tournament will not follow that of Wimbledon (June 27-July 10) which banned Russians and Belarusians from participating.
"I will always condemn the war, being myself a child of the war (Editor's note: in the former Yugoslavia), but I cannot support the decision of the Wimbledon tournament, I think it is crazy.
Tennis players, athletes have nothing to do with what is happening.
When politics intervenes in sport, it's never good ”launched Novak Djokovic.
On March 9, 36 Sports Ministries proposed a joint declaration following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In this agreement, it is stipulated that only Russian and Belarusian selections are banned from competitions.
It is for this reason that Russia is excluded from the Davis Cup for example, but that Russian tennis players are not necessarily banned from tournaments where they represent their personal interests and not those of a national team.
“We impose strict neutrality on Russian and Belarusian players.
We remain on the principle of all the sports ministries of the European Union and all the key countries around us, ”said the director general of the FFT Amélie Oudéa-Castéra at a press conference.
This Thursday, the president of the FFT Gilles Moretton, quoted by the Team, reaffirmed this position by recalling this condition of neutrality.
Players will be able to play on the clay courts of Porte d'Auteuil but under a neutral banner and their national anthem will not be played if a player of that nationality wins.
“The position has not changed.
To date, we are in line with the declaration of March 9, 2022 by all the sports ministries of the European Union and other signatory countries, which aims to impose on Russian and Belarusian athletes a regime of strict neutrality.
So no flag, no anthem.
Point.
We stay there.
The position is that and we apply it.
We are not going to go into the judgment and assessment of the British government.
Everyone has their position.
It's on top of the little tennis tournament that we are,” said Moretton.
From May 22, we should therefore see on the courts of Roland-Garros, Andrey Rublev (8th in the world), Aryna Sabalenka (4th and semi-finalist last year), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15th) or even Victoria Azarenka (ex -n°1, today 18th).
A big uncertainty still surrounds the participation of Daniil Medvedev, world No. 2 and finalist of the last Grand Slam tournament in January in Australia, barely recovered from a hernia operation and little adept on clay.
