At the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament, no world ranking points will be awarded this year. The professional organizations ATP and WTA are thus at the spell against Russian and Belarusian professionals.

The most famous tournament divides the tennis world, the attitude of Wimbledon in the Russia question has prompted the professional organizations to take an unprecedented step: because the guardians over the holy lawn because of the Russian attack on Ukraine at the Grand Slam player, which started on June 27th And have excluded players from Russia and Belarus, ATP and WTA will cut the world ranking points for the tournament – and only strengthen Wimbledon in his attitude.

“We are still not ready to accept that success or participation in Wimbledon is used by the propaganda machine of the Russian regime,” said a prompt reaction from the direction of Church Road. One is “deeply disappointed” about the action of ATP/WTA: “This is disproportionate and harms all players who take part in the tour.”

Tournament and professional associations are miles away, ATP and WTA see the single-handedly in England as a violation of basic players, but also as an attack on your own sovereignty.

“The possibility for players of all nationality to participate in tournaments based on their performance and without discrimination is of fundamental importance for our tour,” said a statement of the men’s organization ATP that was spread on Friday evening: “The decision Wimbledons, Russian and Belarusian players to ban participation this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP ranking system. “

The ATP also wants to prevent a precedent, according to which individual tournaments are allowed to discriminate certain players through their own decision. “This is not feasible on a tour that takes place in more than 30 countries,” it said. A little later, the Women Association WTA joined this “difficult decision”.

“The WTA believes that individuals who participate in an individual sport are not punished for decisions of the governments of their countries and excluded from the competition,” said WTA chairman Steve Simon: “The recent decisions of all England Lawn Tennis Club and the Lawn Tennis Association violate this fundamental principle, which is clearly anchored in the rules of the WTA and the Grand Slams as well as in the agreement between WTA and Grand Slams. “

Djokovic: Wimbledon decision “crazy”

The only Grand Slam tournament organized by a private organization in Wimbledon (the national associations are responsible for the other three) had stipulated in April that players from Russia and Belarus did not go from June 27th to the Russian raid on Ukraine July 10th in the world’s most famous tournament. This affects Russia’s top star Daniil Medvedev, among others.

The measure went well beyond the course of the ATP and WTA players – their tournaments are approved by professionals under neutral flag.

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This had caused powerful disagreements among the professionals. Serbia’s world ranking listener Novak Djokovic called the decision “crazy” that this war was “not the mistake of the players”. The Ukrainian top players, however, top players Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostjuk demanded that all other tournaments should join the spell.