Center Court at Wimbledon. Illustrative photo.
London – This year, unlike last year, Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be able to compete in Wimbledon and in preparatory tournaments in Britain before the famous London Grand Slam. This is according to the newspaper Daily Telegraph, according to which the heads of British tennis and the organizers of Wimbledon will no longer ban the representatives of both countries from participating because of the Russian military incursion into Ukraine.
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Representatives of the All England Club (AELTC) and the British Tennis Association (LTA) did not allow tennis players from Russia and Belarus to their tournaments last year under pressure from the British government. The professional organizations ATP and WTA, which do not limit the participation of tennis players from these countries in their tournaments, decided in protest that points for the world ranking will not be awarded at Wimbledon. At the same time, the LTA was fined $1 million by the ATP and $750,000 by the WTA.
“All indications are that the AELTC will ease the ban on Russians and Belarusians,” the Daily Telegraph reported. However, according to the paper, tennis players from these countries will have to sign a statement that during the tournament they will not “promote or celebrate” the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
