By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Tennis Author
PARIS (AP) — The ladies’s and males’s skilled tennis excursions won’t award rating factors for Wimbledon this yr due to the All England Membership’s ban on gamers from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, an unprecedented transfer that stands as a big rebuke of the game’s oldest Grand Slam event.
The WTA and ATP introduced their choices Friday night time, two days earlier than the beginning of the French Open — and somewhat greater than a month earlier than play begins at Wimbledon on June 27.
In a technical sense, this renders the occasion an exhibition, as a result of there aren’t any rating factors at stake. Nonetheless, it stays Wimbledon, with its traditions and status, from the grass underfoot to the all-white clothes, from the Royal Field to the strawberries and cream, to not point out thousands and thousands of {dollars} in prize cash, and so the expectation is that everybody eligible to enter will accomplish that.
Russian athletes have been prevented from competing in lots of sports activities, together with soccer’s World Cup qualifying playoffs, because the nation started attacking Ukraine in February. Belarus has aided Russia within the invasion.
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The All England Membership stated in April it might not permit Russians or Belarusians to compete, which drew speedy criticism from the WTA and the ATP, together with some outstanding gamers, equivalent to defending champion Novak Djokovic. It’ll bear watching how this entire episode impacts the relationships among the many numerous entities which have a say in the way in which tennis is run.
“The power for gamers of any nationality to enter tournaments based mostly on advantage, and with out discrimination, is prime to our tour,” the ATP stated in an announcement. “The choice by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian gamers from competing within the U.Ok. this summer season undermines this precept and the integrity of the ATP rating system.”
Saying it made this transfer “with nice remorse and reluctance,” the ATP added: “Our guidelines and agreements exist as a way to shield the rights of gamers as an entire. Unilateral choices of this nature, if unaddressed, set a harmful precedent for the remainder of the tour. Discrimination by particular person tournaments is solely not viable on a tour that operates in additional than 30 international locations.”
A press release attributed to WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon and launched by that tour Friday stated, partially: “Practically 50 years in the past, the WTA was based on the basic precept that each one gamers have an equal alternative to compete based mostly on advantage and with out discrimination. The WTA believes that particular person athletes collaborating in a person sport shouldn’t be penalized or prevented from competing solely due to their nationalities or the selections made by the governments of their international locations.”
As well as, the Worldwide Tennis Federation stated Friday it might not grant its rating factors for the junior and wheelchair occasions at Wimbledon this yr, explaining that “event organizers are usually not permitted to unilaterally impose entry standards.”
The All England Membership despatched an announcement by way of e-mail expressing its “deep disappointment” on the elimination of rating factors, calling the excursions’ place “disproportionate within the context of the distinctive and excessive circumstances of this example and the place we discovered ourselves in” and terming it “damaging to all gamers.”
The membership reiterated the 2 primary methods through which it beforehand defended the selection to bar Russians and Belarusians: It adopted recommendation from the British authorities, and an unwillingness “to simply accept success or participation at Wimbledon getting used to profit the propaganda machine of the Russian regime, which, by its intently managed State media, has an acknowledged historical past of utilizing sporting success to assist a triumphant narrative to the Russian individuals.”
Among the many outstanding gamers affected by the ban are reigning U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev, who lately reached No. 1 within the rankings and is at the moment No. 2; males’s No. 7 Andrey Rublev; ladies’s No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka, a Wimbledon semifinalist final yr; and Victoria Azarenka, a former No. 1 who has received the Australian Open twice.
Medvedev and Rublev are from Russia; Sabalenka and Azarenka are from Belarus.
They’re all eligible to compete in Paris, and Medvedev deflected questions concerning the subject of Wimbledon’s Russia coverage on Friday.
“Proper now I’m targeted on Roland Garros,” he stated at a pre-tournament information convention. “I’m right here.”
When a reporter raised the potential for authorized motion in opposition to the All England Membership, maybe by way of the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport, Medvedev stated: “Me, personally, I received’t go to court docket.”
The U.S. Tennis Affiliation, which runs the U.S. Open, has not introduced a call about gamers from Russia and Belarus; that event begins Aug. 29.
“The USTA respects the tough place that Wimbledon confronted in its determination to ban Russian and Belarusian gamers,” spokesman Chris Widmaier wrote in an e-mail. “We additionally respect the grounds on which each the boys’s and ladies’s excursions responded, although we imagine their determination to withdraw factors from all those that play Wimbledon this yr is disproportionately extreme because of the excessive and distinctive scenario Wimbledon confronted when making its determination.”
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